The Velkan Incident
by Jebe
Summary: Natsuki goes spelunking and ends up finding a crashed but still functional Advent ship before becoming entangled in events with TSAB. Story start is before series start of A's and Guyver the Biobooster Armor.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer:

Series referenced include Guyver and Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's. This fic uses a fusion of these two universes. MADOX Metal Skin Panic is referenced by characters.

This author sees no part of ad revenue related to and this is written for fun rather then profit. The following fanfic intentionally breaks away from continuity to avoid issues related to plagiarism or excessive lack of originality.

[-]

She felt now was the opportune time to go and do something special as a group, although no one else seemed to be interested in seeing it that way. Today was the last day of her and Tetsuro's second year of High School. Next year they'd be graduating and by necessity would have to be focused on getting into the best University possible. Simply put this was the last time the Sci-Fi club would really have the opportunity to do something like this.

"Come on guys, it'll be fun. It's like a completely different world in there." The first years looked uncomfortable. Even the reasonably physically capable ones like Sho seemed to just be trying to wait her out so they could go home.

"What do you think Tetsuro?" She asked turning towards the club president for support.

Tetsuro over the past year had started to become increasingly heavy. Although he wasn't yet at the point one could describe him as obese, his face was beginning to clearly show the effects of extra padding. Tetsuro wiped his forehead as his eyes darted around clearly looking for a way out.

She'd been the one who had helped him establish this club in the first place. Founding a club that wasn't simply playing into popular followings related to anime, manga, or playing just to popular Space Opera like Star Wars. Rather a club about Science Fiction and the various concepts and ideas associated with the genre. It was her that had helped to insure that he got their publication out every month, did the required paperwork, and otherwise insured that the club hadn't dissolved. And this is what it all amounted to.

This trip would involving spelunking with scuba gear in one of the less explored submerged cave systems which was noted for various strange creatures. It would be a real chance to explore the weird and the fantastical. There only problem seemed to be that no one else wanted to go.

"You can't force them to want to go, Natsuki. If they aren't interested, they aren't interested." Tetsuro said finally while dabbing himself with a towel.

[-]

"Tetsuro, is this really okay?"

"You didn't want to go either, Sho."

"She seemed to have her heart set on it."

"She'll sulk and complain at us about it, but it's not like anyone is going to get hurt. You can't let yourself get pushed around just because someone else wants to do something Sho."

[-]

The others had all ended up opting out. Natsuki Taiga could have went to a beach or spent the money that she'd saved up on a normal activity. That wasn't what she'd wanted to do, and club or no club she was going to do this. She'd spent too long planning this and figuring out how it'd all work to just give it up. She just wished she could forget about the others betrayal enough to properly enjoy this.

The headlamp's lance of light pierced the darkness revealing not only cave formations, but some of the unique wildlife that made caves their home. They skittered away to dark corners, many of them were able to sense light but not see in the conventional sense. She noticed another pool farther in that looked promising.

She tied off her guide cord on a stalagmite and cut it before starting another one near the pool. It wouldn't do for the only thing preventing her from getting lost on her way out to be severed because she'd only run a single string. Increasing the risk of it ultimately getting caught on something and snapping simply wasn't worth it.

She checked her watch and tank gauges. It had been about 45 minutes, and tank gauges were looking good. This next section was probably going to be it before she needed to turn around. As much as she enjoyed exploring these caves it wasn't worth getting trapped without enough air to get out.

She pulled out her handheld flashlight and slowly walked into the pool making a point to look out for dangerous wild life or rock formations, as she sweeped the high powered beams across the water. A small cave in greeted her when she was deep enough to submerge herself. She pulled out her diving knife and began working rocks out, and digging away at the dirt.

Once she'd cleared enough of it away she pointed her flashlight through the opening to see a much larger chamber with some large thing filling it. Her curiosity got the better of her. Whatever this thing was it wasn't like anything she'd ever heard about. She picked up the pace and cleared a large enough opening for her to squeeze through.

Whatever the thing was it was large and it's surface felt slick, leathery, and solid under her wet suit gloved hand. If it was some kind of creature it was clearly dead. There was no reaction to her presence and the cave it was in seemed to only be slightly larger then its massive bulk. She swam towards the bottom of the cave, and noticed that a large section of whatever it was seemed to have been torn away by something.

She swam over to it, and after peering in with her flashlight to check whether it was safe swam in. As she entered she realized there were dim lights, and she was in a chamber that was clearly only a small portion of whatever this thing was. There was definitely an organic feel to the whole thing but there was no sign of organs or rotting. Looking around she noticed something that looked kind of like a heart valve, and swam towards it.

She touched it with her diving knife prodding it with the intent of getting an idea just what she was dealing with when it abruptly opened. The next minute was a blur as she was sucked through various chambers. It occurred to her that the thing might be trying to eat her, but nothing she'd seen so far lined up with that.

Her back slammed into a wall, and she heard a hiss. She checked her gauges which confirmed her fears that her reserve tank was leaking, and of course her primary had been mostly depleted on the way in. It took he a second to realize the water level was dropping, and that she was in a well illuminated chamber.

She noticed there was a small dais with things studded into it that looked like they might be some kind of control system. Maybe something like they occasionally talked about on the tech shows where you put your hand on it and it allows you to control it by your thoughts. It was a stretch but she was hemorrhaging air and trapped. Exploring options beat waiting around for her air to run out.

Pulling off her glove she touched the metal object that might be a control panel. When nothing happened, she applied a some pressure just to make sure it wasn't a contact issue. There was a clear and distinctive click. She looked around to see if it had done anything.

She caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, and pulled her knife. Turning towards it, she was confronted by a mass of tentacles. She immediately threw herself to the side and started rolling in an attempt to dodge. She wasn't about to wait around and see if there was any truth to what they said about tentacle monsters. Unfortunately her dodge wasn't clean, and one of the tentacles managed to grab onto her leg.

She rolled into a crouch and tried to cut herself free, but the knife wouldn't bite into whatever these things were made of. She might as well have been using a butter knife. She glanced up and noticed the main body hadn't been idle. She met its lunge with a kick from the already entangled foot, which it just latched onto.

She responded by trying to stomp it into the floor. That didn't seem to phase it but she wasn't going to go down without a fight. Striking upon another idea she looked for the metal thing, which she quickly found as it was crawling up her leg. She grabbed it tried to pull it off. It seemed like she'd won when pulling on it pulled the creature off with it, but then it latched onto her head and chest.

[-]

Amy looked over her read outs, there seemed to be an abnormality in the dimensional readings. She adjusted the scanning patterns to look at the source more closely.

[-]

Natsuki blinked. What had happened? It took her a while to take in her surroundings, her vision was weird and there seemed to be something skittering around in the back of her head. She slowly recognized the room with the dais, but it was like she was looking at the entire room at the same time and simultaneously looking at what was beyond the room. It was an unnatural perspective, and there was more to it then that. She could swear she was perceiving various energy fields including some rather powerful ones directly below.

She wondered if there was some way to get there and as if in response to her thoughts a hole opened in the floor. Uh-huh. Memories of how she'd got here made her decide it was a prudent time to take an inventory of herself. Checking the obvious led her to find that her pelvis was now covered in corded muscles that looked suspiciously like that tentacle thing, and what looked like red armor plates.

Huh? It looked like several organs had been replaced with something else entirely. Most notably it looked like her chest was now some kind of gelatinous substance. It occurred to Natsuki that she was literally looking inside herself, and that whatever this thing was impregnation was clearly not on its list of objectives.

She exhaled and noted the resultant stream of bubbles, and that she was breathing fine despite her rebreather being nowhere to be found… Huh. She stuck a hand out. Maybe it was like those supersuits concepts that you sometimes saw in Sci-Fi.

She almost fell backwards in surprise when an orb of energy actually crackled into existence in her palm, thankfully diffusing in her surprise. Okay, so the thing hadn't tried to rape her, and was actually some kind of Sci-Fi supersuit that gave her enhanced perception, the ability to breathe under water, and high energy weapons. Was there anything else it could do?

She willed herself up and she felt her feet lose contact with the ground. So flight was on the table. She decided to hold off trying to will herself to change appearance until she wasn't in this... Wait, if this was a Sci-Fi suit did that mean this was actually a starship?

Well there was something that looked like a thruster assembly, but the portion torn out of the ship went right through it and it looked like there was other damage. That looked like it was from something that had been shooting at it, while the torn off section looked more like it was from a crash. Natsuki let herself settle to the ground and rested an arm against the wall for a moment to help fight the vertigo.

Maybe the energy source down there would give her some answers? She walked over to the hole and willed herself down, finding herself in a large chamber with a various dim lighting panels and a pair of large orbs mounted on daises on the roof and floor in the center of the chamber. The source of the energy seemed to be the orbs, which seemed to be the only thing keeping the ship alive.

She floated over to them.

[-]

The discrepancy had resolved itself into a solid confirmation of a dimensional engine, when the sensors had focused on it. It looked like they'd missed it before because of the limited amount of power it had been drawing fell within tolerances for background dimensional disruption.

Then alarms had started going off. Some code began flashing on the screen. She quickly flipped through the manual on her second monitor, but didn't find a match.

As she was trying to figure out how that could be, someone called out that the Captain was on the bridge. She immediately joined her coworkers in standing and rendering the proper salute.

She just barely heard Captain Lindy say, "So this is one of those worlds." Captain Lindy walked over to the Captain's chair and tapped several controls canceling the alert.

"Stand down." She ordered before leaving the bridge.

[-]

Once Captain Lindy reached her quarters she opened a secure communications channel.

"Admiral Graham, we have a problem."

[-]

"Arf did you hear that?" Fate asked from within Arf's enclosing embrace. After what had happened with Mother, Arf hadn't let her sleep alone. Captain Lindy had offered them quarters, but she'd chosen to stay in the brig.

"It sounded like an alarm." Arf noted.

"Maybe Nanoha's in danger." Fate said quietly, separating herself and picking up Bardiche.

"I'm sure they can handle it." Arf said quietly. Ever since Fate had taken an interest in Nanoha, that seemed to be the only thing she talked about or thought about. Even when she was trying to be comforting it didn't seem to really reach her.

Fate pulled on the uniform that her Mother had created for her. She paused on her way to the door and touched Arf comforting on the arm before continuing her silent march towards the bridge.

[-]

"So what was the alarm about?" Chrono asked.

Amy looked at him sideways.

"If I buy you lunch will you tell me what the alarm was about?" Chrono asked after a minute.

Amy smiled, and tapped a few keys bringing up the relevant screens. "We're picking up readings of an active starship class dimensional engine in this vicinity. That activated an automatic alarm nobody seems to be familiar with."

"A starship?" The indicated area on the map was a hill. What was that kind of technology doing on this planet, and why would someone bury a starship and leave the engines active?

[-]

She'd been able to interface with the ship, but all she'd managed to learn was that the communication systems were offline, and that it had been carrying some kind of cargo before it had crashed. The logs beyond those directly related to damage reports and warning messages were either wiped or locked out. As she had already inferred the logs indicated that the original crew had abandoned it after getting attacked and crash landing.

The ship's energy reserves were fully charged, but there was no way that it would ever be spaceworthy again. There apparently was some kind of dimensionally transcendent engines that were still intact, but with the reserves already full the lesser units in the Control Spheres were maintaining emergency power.

As cool as finding an alien starship was, there wasn't a lot to do with it in its current state, and with this suit she could easily come back. She decided it was time to leave and see just what the suit could do.

[-]

Chrono appeared near the "hill." Up close he could tell that it was more of a small mountain then a hill. Rock was clearly in evidence. Now that he was actually here he wasn't quite sure what to do. According to Amy the ship was _under_ the mountain. He decided to send out a few seekers, on principle.

[-]

It was a lot faster and easier to navigate the caves when you were basically navigating a 3 dimensional map of the cave system with something that could just glide through water. It made it so easy it almost took the fun out of it. She chose to exit through the sea side entrance she'd entered from, although her scanners revealed more options.

She bobbed to the surface finding the difference in fluid mixture to be a minimal issue a surprisingly minimal issue. She noticed an energy signature moving towards her and looked up dumbly at a floating blue orb. It didn't feel like anything she'd encountered so far. It was like a humming in a band she hadn't encountered yet. She had to wonder if this was something that was always there and she could just nor perceive it before. Now about changing appearance...

Natsuki looked at her arms after willing changing her appearance for a while. Nothing. Huh? Maybe it was something you could take off like a power suit. Hopefully this thing wouldn't involve a repeat of MADOX's plot.

"Freeze in the name of the Time and Space Administration Bureau. You are wanted as a person of interest."

Natsuki blinked. A boy that couldn't be a day over twelve was hovering over her in a black trenchcoat, and giving a standard police spiel.

"I'm sorry, who are you supposed to be?" Her voice sounded strangely synthetic. Maybe that was a setting somewhere...

"I'm Enforcer Chrono Harlaown."

"Of the Space-Time Administration Bureau?" Natsuki deadpanned. Much better.

"Yes."

"And what gives you authority to administer space-time?"

The boy paused.

"And if you're an Enforcer, what do you enforce?"

That left him thinking about it.

"And why are you doing this when you look like you're 11 years old?"

"I'm Fourteen!"

[-]

Amy looked back towards the teleporter to see a women in scuba gear with a duffel bag and shoulder length hair appear next to a very quiet and docile Chrono. His apprehending her for questioning hadn't exactly gone according to plan.

"Wow, it's actually a working starship." She said, gawking.

"Welcome aboard, I'm Captain Harlaown of the Asura. I hope you enjoyed your conversation with Chrono."

"You really shouldn't let him do that, he might get hurt."

Chrono bristled.

"He's actually rather capable." The Captain soothed.

"I don't suppose you have somewhere I could change? I've been wearing this wetsuit for over an hour, and it's soaking wet."

"I'll have one of my staff show you to quarters, and provide you a change of clothes."

[-]

The most amazing part to her was that when she'd asked about the shower they'd told her not to worry about using too much hot water. In all the Sci-Fi stories she'd read that had ever brought it up had indicated that hot water would be a scarce and rationed resource. The blue haired woman had been nice enough to even be willing to repair the air tanks, when she'd mentioned they were damaged and rentals.

Based on what she knew of apartments from her uncle that meant that they either only had a few people on the ship, or more then enough ability to heat water for the crew. Or maybe they were just being nice. The shower stall was not much different from what she was used to beyond the use of some kind of projected touch screen controls. After a moment she figured it out and had a nice stream of hot water.

Come to think of it she was on a starship, and the water was falling down… She shut off the water, this called for experimentation.

[-]

"Uhm… What are you doing?"

Natsuki looked over to the door where the blue haired woman stood looking uncomfortable. "I'm experimenting. I'm trying to figure out how the artificial gravity works."

"The keel maintains a steady artificial gravity field of 8.8 within a tolerance of 0.2." The blue haired woman offered.

"Oh. I thought it felt lighter." She'd been trying to time it with her watch, but while there had been indicators gravity was reduced versus Earth she hadn't been satisfied with the quality of her results. She wondered if the keel being the source meant that the crew was pulled down in planar fashion like Star Trek, or whether it was more like 2001 where the quarters were curved and the crew was pulled towards the center.

"I brought you a change of clothes. I was going to just leave them on the bed while you were showering. Sorry for walking in on you."

The door snap hissed closed.

But how did that work with the engines? Any kind of engine appropriate to an interstellar starship would involve propelling the ship and her crew at extremely high accelerations. Were the quarters arranged like the early space capsules where the direction of thrust was down, or was it like the space shuttle and most Sci-Fi where the engine was behind them?

"Does this ship use some kind of inertial dampening system, or does it use some kind of portal-rift technology to bypass the need?" Natsuki turned towards the door.

Wait, where did she go?

[-]

Captain Lindy watched Aoi walk back to her station. She was clearly embarrassed and unsettled. Oh?

"So how is our guest settling in?"

Aoi looked mortified. "She seems to be settling in well, Captain." She said in a reassuring fashion her face didn't quite show.

"Did something happen?" She asked gently.

Aoi mumbled something she didn't quite manage to catch well enough to decipher.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it."

"I walked in on her when she was jumping up and down in her quarters, trying to figure out how the artificial gravity worked."

"That doesn't…"

"She'd just stepped out of the shower."

Oh.

[-]

Natsuki made her way to the cafeteria following the engineering crew when they said it was their lunch break. Apparently this ship was powered by something they referred to as "Magic" with main drive power coming from some dimensional principles she hadn't really understood beyond they were taking energy from a higher dimension and channeling it into the ship. Apparently it was actually a rather dangerous as if it wasn't properly regulated it would turn the ship into a fine mist of subatomic particles spread across the solar system. So they currently were keeping it offline except for short spurts, because apparently this region of space was dimensionally distorted.

After Natsuki picked out a meal she noticed that a child with long blonder hair was sitting alone, except for a red haired woman with furry ears and a swishing tail at a table far away from everyone else. Hmm.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" She said while putting down her plate and sitting down next to the red haired animal woman.

The red head looked like she was about ready to bear her fangs and growl at her. The younger blond looked up and didn't really seem to see her before turning back to picking at her food.

"So what are you in for? I apparently found something I wasn't supposed to."

The red head looked at her coldly.

"Do you know Nanoha?" Came a quiet voice from the direction of the blond.

The red head immediately turned towards the blond and started to reach towards her in a comforting fashion.

"It sounds like she's someone who's very important to you."

"She… saved me." The blonde's voice was once again quiet. The red haired animal woman looked at her pointedly, clearly not appreciative of her butting in like this. Screw her.

"So who's your friend here?"

"Would you leave?" The red head growled baring some rather pointy teeth.

"Arf." The blonde said quietly, looking at the red head and touching her arm in a comforting fashion. The red head calmed down looking towards the blond. She was getting a rather odd vibe off these two.

"How about I ask the Captain about you see Nanoha, when I go see her?"

The blonde looked at her with a grateful expression.

[-]

"Would you like some green tea?" The Captain asked.

The Captain's personal quarters had a very classic Japanese feel. Natsuki wondered if it was an example of convergent development or whether it was a case where they'd been studying Earth culture. That in turn begged the question of whether her quarters were like this because she was trying to create a more comfortable environment.

"Thank you very much."

"Sugar?"

Sugar with green tea? "You must be thinking black tea, green tea doesn't need any sugar."

"Is that so?" The Captain asked while dropping a sugar cube into her own mug of green tea. There was no accounting for taste.

Natsuki took a sip of her own unadulterated cup of green tea. It actually was properly made cup of green tea, which removed the best excuse she had for the Captain's decision to... sweeten green tea. "It sounds like Fate would appreciate it if you let her meet with Nanoha."

The Captain smiled slightly. "Those two have been through a lot. Did you hear the story?"

"No, her friend was being rather protective."

The Captain chuckled. "Arf's very loyal."

There was a pause while the Captain seemed content to nurse her mug of tea. "I got the impression you didn't call me here just to offer me some tea. It's very well made by the way."

"Could you tell me about what happened down there?" The Captain asked seemingly more focused on blowing on her tea then her.

"So this is where you take my official statement?" Natsuki closed her eyes for a moment. This was the part she'd been trying to avoid. As much as she'd managed to pester that boy about it, it sounded like these people were rather sure that they had jurisdiction and the power to back it up.

"Please don't think about it like that. This is strictly off the record." The Captain said comfortingly. Natsuki noticed the subtle way the Captain's grip on her mug tightened. She'd been afraid of that. It looked like this was going to be more of a MADOX plot afterall.

She explained how she'd been spelunking in a submerged cave, and how she'd found the ship. She mentioned how it had sucked her in and she'd ended up encountering the creature that had turned into the suit. Speaking of which that pair of growths on her back were starting to feel rather sore, and she was starting to feel kind of tired.

"I want you to know that we're here to help you." She paused. "Would you like to call it a day?"

She was starting to feel a little woozy. She blinked as she realized a hand was pressed against her forehead.

"You're burning up, let's get you to the infirmary."

[-]

"How's she doing?"

"I think she'll be fine, Captain. It looks like it was some kind of passing flu or immune response."

Headquarters had ordered that the girl be extradited to Midchilda as soon as possible, and were scheduling a fleet to retrieve the ship when the dimensional distortion was projected to settle down enough. Unlike most Lost Logia these artifacts had no association with Al Hazzard. As far as most personnel were cleared to know this other civilization didn't even exist. There were stories about these things in the record of Velka, but based on the reaction from the top brass her suspicion that this was the first time TSAB had encountered something like this seemed justified.

It didn't take much imagination to know what they probably wanted her for.

"The tissue samples you asked me to take have been put in cold storage, as ordered."

"Good."

"Is there something wrong Captain?" The ships doctor asked.

She shouldn't say anything about it, but if she didn't talk to someone about this to some degree she was going to explode.

"We've encountered a secret project and something that's going to be turned into a secret project in as many months. At least the worst Fate has to look forward to is being monitored for the rest of her life. This girl's liable to just disappear into a lab somewhere and have all records of her existence deleted."

[-]

"It looks like you're coming around." Natsuki looked up to see a woman in a lab coat smiling down at her.

The presence in the back of her mind was twisting and turning in agitation. "I don't think we've met."

"I'm the ship's doctor. You had us worried for a while there." She seemed to be genuinely concerned, and not the source of whatever it was that the thing in her mind was agitated about.

"This girl's liable to just disappear into a lab somewhere and have all records of her existence deleted." A voice that sounded a lot like the Captain's whispered in the back of her mind. The presence in the back of her mind flared in warning. What was that supposed to mean?

Suddenly she found herself experiencing suit vision of a scene where the Doctor and the Captain were talking.

"Natsuki." The doctor asked gently her voice clearly concerned.

"Huh?" Natsuki blinked

"It looks like you zoned out for a moment. Are you feeling alright?"

"I guess I had little relapse." She said sheepishly. Saying anything about what had actually caused her to lose touch with her surroundings probably wasn't a good idea considering.

"If you want to rest some more, feel free to stay here." The doctor offered.

[-]

"So how does the transporter thing work?" As much as she'd pestered them about everything else it if anything should be surprising that she hadn't asked about that yet.

"It uses a form of dimensional transfer. Using magic we're able to take something from there and bring it here or vice versa. While more powerful mages are able to handle dimensional transfers by themselves it's very useful for the rest of us." Amy explained.

"So how do you control it?"

"Well you have someone open up the proper program like this." She opened up a w indow on her screen. "And then you just select your coordinates and tell it to send by clicking here."

"What happens to the last person on the ship? Is there some kind of timer so they can program it, and then just wait on the pad."

"When we're pulling into drydock we do something like that." Amy opened a menu where time delay could be set.

"So it's like this?" Natsuki dialed it at five seconds back where she'd been picked up in the first place.

"Yeah like..." Natsuki dove for the transporter booth. She wasn't sure if the supersuit could breathe vacuum or survive re-entry but this way she wouldn't have to.

She saw the tech turn confused in her direction just before the thing energized. She sighed in relief as she smelled the familiar smells of the ocean surf. It had worked. She willed the supersuit back to herself.

[-]

"Status report." The Captain demanded as she walked onto the bridge.

"Natsuki has teleported to the surface, and is currently fleeing by water along the coast. Our sensors have focused on the area and we're maintaining a solid lock."

Aoi could swear she heard the Captain cuss under her breath.

"Chrono, go see if Fate's available."

[-]

Natsuki had a sneaking suspicion they were tracking her while using the suit, but that it probably wouldn't be so easy for them once she disengaged it. Separate from that but still relevant was the issue that if she was seen flying or running around while wearing the suit it wouldn't go unnoticed. Her plan was to jet to Tokyo, and find some discreet place to pull herself out before disengaging the suit. There was enough urban sprawl and witnesses that she should be able to lose them before catching a train back home.

A light green energy bubble formed around her. That wasn't good. While she was debating what to do to try to break it the suit's sensors identified the source. The Captain had decided to come down personally, which also meant that there was no way she was going to get away cleanly.

She pointed a palm towards the bubble. She might as well at least see what it'd do. The energy sphere came to her call, and she fired it at the bubble wall. The sphere tore through the bubble like it wasn't even there, and warped the energy away causing the bubble to burst and explode. The Captain didn't manage to avoid the spray of sea water.

"So there's truth to the legends." The Captain whispered in a low voice Natsuki doubted she'd normally have been able to hear.

"It doesn't have to be this way. I don't want to hurt anyone, just let me go."

The Captain regarded her for a moment, before frowning slightly. "I'm afraid it wouldn't matter if I did. If I don't bring you in it will simply fall to someone else who won't be as understanding."

Her sensors detected an energy pattern forming behind her. It was a portal which moments later the boy appeared within and began charging an attack. She swung an arm up as she turned around not quite coherent of what to do beyond attempting to counter the attack with another attack.

The energy sphere jumped into being, and the child's blue bolt was released. She fired the sphere at his attack, and when the two met the blue bolt was bent and warped out of the way while the energy sphere continued onward. The child tried to dodge, but he was too slow in coming to grips with what had happened. She willed the sphere dissipate just in time to avoid killing him.

Energy patterns formed around her. She turned just in time to see the spinning light green circles before the chains lanced out and wrapped around her. The child meanwhile was recovering. She felt the presence in the back of her mind starting to offer her possibilities. Possibilities however that would leave both of her assailants dead.

"Stop this."

A laser blast erupted from her forehead creating a line of molten glass and weakening the energy chain enough her tugging at it was able to easily break it. The boy through a trio of energy hoops she expected were more binds. She managed to blast one of them, but the other two managed to get around her before she could safely fire thanks to the awkward positioning.

"Stop it!"

"We've got her." The boy declared triumphantly as more binds snagged around her. Her sensors could detect though that the bindings were struggling to hold her.

She detected something incoming it was on a similar band, but she was having a hard time making sense of what she was detecting.

"Is that your friend?"

"What are you..." The kid never got to finish the sentence as something blew in, and smacked him with the back of its sword, sending him skidding across the landscape. The Captain soon met a similar fate as her defenses proved to be no match. Their spells however did not dissipate, apparently they really had not wanted her to get loose.

"The last time I encountered something like you during the height of Velka." Visually the source it appeared to be a woman in what looked like a stylized outfit with a sword and reinforced bracers. Spectrally on several bands things weren't there that should be, and on others things were different in ways she was at a loss to even begin to try to explain.

"Absorption." Another bizarre pattern that was now hovering next to the thing that looked like a woman declared.

Natsuki could feel herself being drawn into what was visually a deceptively understated book. She tried to struggle but the bind, and the containment the thing that looked like a book were exerting on her refused to yield.

[-]

Fate transferred in. The Captain and Chrono were laying next to each other on their backs. As she drew closer she could see their breathing was labored, and their presences felt faint.

"Arf, get them back to the ship."

Author's Note:

This story starts at the beginning of the summer before the events of Guyver, and while the Asura is waiting for the Dimensional Distortion from the Testerossa Incident to settle down enough to leave. In practice that means they haven't successfully breached the ship at Relics Point yet, and Gregoles are actually a new and high end Zoanoid model. Needless to say HyperZoanoid processing techniques just beginning to be conceived.

MADOX is a single episode OVA that was the first Anime titles imported unedited and with subtitles as an option by one of the first companies in the industry, AnimEigo. For those who never saw this classic OVA it involves a guy more or less unintentionally stealing a government power armor he can't figure out how to get out of, and then getting hunted down when the government find out where he is because they want it back.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer:

Series referenced include Guyver and Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's. This fic uses a fusion of these two universes.

This author sees no part of ad revenue related to and this is written for fun rather then profit. The following fanfic intentionally breaks away from continuity to avoid issues related to plagiarism or excessive lack of originality.

[-]

Nanoha wondered what Fate was doing. It had been a while since the last video letter. She wished that Lindy would let them meet, but apparently there was some regulation against them communicating in real time while Fate was awaiting trial.

"Your thinking about that Testerossa girl again aren't you? What's up with you and her anyway?" Arisa demanded.

"Ah... well..." She couldn't exactly tell them about Fate's Mother, or the Jewel Seeds, or TSAB, or Magic, or...

"Come on Arisa don't pester her. You said yourself that Fate was nice." Suzuka interjected herself between the two of them.

Arisa crossed her arms in annoyance and looked away, grumbling. "That was before Nanoha started daydreaming about her, when she isn't even here."

"It's not like that." Nanoha tried to excuse herself.

Suzuka looked between them. "Does anyone want any more tea?" She tried to offer.

[-]

Nanoha debated whether Arisa might be right as she walked the last leg of her journey back home. Suzuka had assured her that Arisa was just having one of those days, and would probably be back to normal tomorrow. She'd been through a lot with the sad looking magic girl, and she couldn't help but worry about her.

"Nanoha, there's a package for you."

Nanoha rushed down to find her sister holding a very familiar and very welcome package.

"Thank you." She grabbed the proffered package and rushed to the living room. She stopped to carefully open the package so that she could reseal it before Arisa came over. Arisa had thrown a fit that one time she'd simply opened the package ahead of them. She put the DVD in the player, and waited impatiently for it to load.

A distraught Fate appeared on the screen. She wasn't wearing the school uniform Lindy had got her, and part of what she recognized at the Asura was visible.

"Nanoha, the Captain she..." Fate held back a sob. She turned towards someone off screen before looking mortified.

The screen flashed and Fate was in her uniform, with the proper background in place.

"Nanoha, I have to move again. I don't know when I'll be able to send you my forwarding address." Midchildan script scrolled across the bottom of the screen, repeating a warning about something that had taken out Chrono and the Captain that was still at large. It ended with a statement that if Yuuno wanted to leave he needed to get back to the ship before tomorrow morning when they were going to attempt to leave.

"I'm not leaving." Yuuno said from next to her shoulder. "I can't leave you alone to face something that could take down both Chrono and Captain Lindy."

[-]

"Master Agito, there's a call for you on line 4 from a Mr. Taiga." One of the servants paged him.

"Thank you." Agito picked up the phone and pressed the appropriate button. The name was vaguely familiar to him, and he knew that the line choice meant it wasn't Chronos related business.

"Hello, this is Agito Makashima." Agito said politely as the phone line engaged.

"You're the only one who can save my daughter." The man's voice alone made it clear he was very upset.

"Please slow down and start from the beginning."

"She went on a trip. She was supposed to be back two days ago. We've called the Police, but they won't help. Please, Master Makashima. Natsuki always spoke highly of you." Ah, her. He very much doubted she'd said much about him let alone positive, rather then the man thinking it would help him to say so.

The man was clearly holding out on relevant details while attempting to persuade him with an emotional appeal. Given the Police had turned him away that implied that this involved something that had caused them to shy away from this. That accounted for at least part of his attempting to sell him while withholding details.

Well as long as it didn't involve an active Chronos operation there wasn't anything stopping him from making appropriate arrangements. Seems as how it had already been officially reported saving her would help with his and the company's public image, especially given the Police had backed out. At the very least this was worth hearing the details on.

"So what do you think happened?" If it was Yakuza, he could probably persuade his father to make arrangements. Chronos tolerated such organizations only to the extent they stayed out of their way, and it had been a while since an example had been made.

"Will you help?" Ah yes, how foolish of him to have neglected that.

"If it's within my power you have my word that I'll make every reasonable effort to save her." The conditions rendered the statement almost meaningless.

"I can't thank you enough young master. I'm faxing you the note she left with us."

Agito smiled. It was ironic in a way. He had afterall acquiesced to the man's demands, even though he scoffed at his selfish attempts at manipulation.

[-]

A visit to the Taiga residence managed to net him detailed notes of Natsuki's little expedition. It looked like she'd been planning this trip for months leading to the purchase of several books on various subjects including scuba diving. These were thorough enough he knew who to go to regarding the equipment she'd rented.

Her goal had been to explore a rather complex and vast submerged cave system. He didn't blame the Police for balking at it. They had enough missing person reports as is without devoting the manpower trying to retrieve the girl's body. Rationally he should have done the same. The most likely situation was that the girl had gotten caught and simply run out of air. That however would put him on the same level as them. He glanced down in the direction of the Taiga's who were rather concerned, about _their_ daughter.

[-]

"Excuse me, could you tell me if _Natsuki Taiga_ returned her equipment?" Given the normal business practices he'd have to lean on this guy to actually get anything out of him. The clerk however had to know why he was being leaned on before one could start leaning on him.

"I'm sorry, I can't…" He didn't need to hear the rest of the spiel.

"You don't understand. She's presumed missing in a submerged cave system, and I'm inquiring on the part of her parents. The longer this takes the more likely when I find her she'll be dead.

Now can you answer my question, or do I need to tell them to start making legal arrangements?" He made sure that his tone made it clear that there was every intention of following through on that.

The clerk turned white. Agito expected his mind was weighing the options of him losing his job because of violating policy, versus losing his job in order for the company to save face. Both were valid options under the circumstances.

"If you tell me, no one needs to know about this." He prompted quietly.

That succeeded in pushing the clerk over the edge.

[-]

Agito made it a point to carry extra tanks. At the very least he'd need them in order to explore the cave system, and if he actually did find Natsuki it was almost guaranteed that hers were expended and needed to be replaced. It took him roughly half an hour get them all setup, running several colors of string as this cave system was unmapped.

This proved to be a wise decision as it took him an hour to find a string trail in the color that Natsuki's notes indicated she'd decided on, and then almost another hour to follow it to a chamber where there was tied off cord that had been snapped. It looked like he was close.

Agito picked up the pair of spare air tanks he was carrying with him with renewed vigor. This was it. If he was going to find her alive, it probably wasn't going to be much further.

Entering the pool he found what looked like the remains of a cave in that an opening had been created through. He pulled his diving knife and broadened it enough that he'd be able to get through before pushing through with the spare tanks in front of him.

This chamber was unlike any of the others. There was some large thing filling it. He swam towards the top of the chamber, but there was no body floating there. Swiping his flashlight around it looked like the only real alternative was she was inside whatever this large formation was. Everything else looked caved in and undisturbed. As massive as this thing was he had some optimism that Natsuki would actually prove to be alive.

The bottom proved to have an opening among some spindly protrusions that appeared to cut into the rock, or were covered in lava as the case might be. As Agito shined light on the rock below and noted its characteristics his curiosity was piqued. There was a good chance this was a previously undiscovered Advent artifact. He became more certain as he entered and found evidence of organic technology.

A few minutes worth of inspection of this particular chamber revealed a sphincter style valve. A little prodding got it to open. The safety line he'd setup suddenly yanked tight as hard suction pulled him through. After a moments consideration he released the knot, and tried to control his ascent. He wasn't able to slow himself down significantly but at least he still had the rope and was able to control things enough to slam into the wall with his feet before the pores the water had been being sucked through closed.

Almost as quickly other pores opened and the water level began to lower as what was presumably air was pumped in. He looked around the room and noted some paint on the wall he'd just avoided slamming into that was the same color as the air tanks from the company she'd rented from. So it looked like she'd gotten this far and…

Further inspection of the room revealed a dais where it appeared one of the three otherwise identical slots was now unoccupied. Sticking out of the dais was something that looked some kind of armor shuttered weapon pod. The obvious conclusion seemed to be that the missing slot was related to Natsuki's visit to this chamber. There however appeared to be no exits once the one he'd come through had sealed seamlessly, cutting his safety rope in the process.

The safest conclusion seemed to be that whatever those things were, they were some kind of mind controlling organism that had effectively abducted his classmate. That however was simply the safest option. It could just as easily be that for some reason after picking up one of the pod things she'd not been able to get to the surface or home for a wide variety of reasons.

As the minutes passed it being some kind of mind control device seemed progressively less likely. If that was the case the creature should have already burst out of its pod and come after him. Given the technology base there was no reason for it to not come to him, or for there only to be three pods for that matter, if the intent was to create mind slaves. Under those circumstances their incentives would bias them to want to convert as many people as possible as quickly as possible, or at least to the extent of not having a staring contest with him for what was going on ten minutes now.

Prodding the floor with his diving knife revealed rather quickly that steel was losing against whatever this material was. So that option for getting out wasn't going to work. It looked like he was going to have to find out what happened to Natsuki first hand afterall.

Flipping the knife into a reverse grip he approached the dais. While it wouldn't cut those things, it at least gave him something that wasn't his hands. He stopped half a meter away from the dais, which showed no signs of responding to his presence. If it was going to pounce he should be within range, which meant whatever it was going to do it was going to wait to do until he was on top of it.

Slipping to the side, he slipped the knife into the gap between the pod and the dais while insuring it was kept both at arms length and not on a direct trajectory with his torso. A few minutes of work popped the pod loose which kept laying there to all appearances entirely inert.

Agito removed his rebreather and took a breath. The air had a salty but clean taste to it and if anything seemed to have more oxygen then it should. He waited a few minutes to see if there was something he was failing to pick up on. He had one last look around the small room just to verify for certain that he hadn't missed anything.

Agito took off the air tanks, and anything else bulky or heavy enough to slow him down before approaching the pod thing. As he kept on guard, but as he had begun to expect the pod didn't respond to his approach. Finally he touched it, and was more surprised by the click then what came afterwards.

It quickly became apparent that physically it was stronger then him, and that it wasn't going to let go. He debated struggling with it physically, but decided that at this point the mental battle was more important. He struggled to and succeeded in remaining conscious as it began interfacing with his mind.

[-]

Agito flexed an armored hand. He could feel the pod creature's mental presence flowing through his mind. Despite his concerns so far it was making no moves to attempt to seize control. Even a cursory examination showed the augmentation it offered was considerable. There were no Zoanoid proposals that had this kind of enhanced perception, and certainly none that also mounted high energy weaponry. Indeed while it had been proposed, they still hadn't worked out the problem of how to make even a basic bio-blaster zoanoid that wouldn't die from toxicity.

There was no way to test the strength in a manner that would allow comparison with the proposed Gregole strength increase to 15X, but based on what he could determine via sensor analysis these muscle fibers were superior to those in the Gregole proposal. All indications pointed to this suit's biotech being far in advance of Chronoss capabilities.

Despite looking around with the suits enhanced senses, there was no sign of Natsuki on the ship. That begged the question of where she'd gotten to. As far as he could tell there was no sign of her in the entire cave system.

Maybe the ship had something?

[-]

"They should be leaving now." Nanoha observed.

Yuuno looked at her unsure of whether he should even say anything. It wasn't like she was trying to tell him that he'd been wrong to stay. And while he'd made a big point about doing it to protect her the reality was that anything that could take down Chrono, Lindy, or Nanoha wouldn't even be slowed down by him.

[-]

When Agito finished interfacing with the ships computer the sun had set, and begun warming the surface again. What passed for a clock didn't use Earth time standards, so he couldn't tell exactly what time it was, but based on the sensors he'd guess around 6AM.

The ship's computer was heavily locked down, and showed signs of a rather thorough attempt to enforce information control by limiting what was had been there and wiping the remainder. From what he'd been able to recover from what had survived was that this ship had been carrying a weapon, which was currently in a pod embedded in the rock further down. Based on sensor scans he'd been able to determine this weapon was some kind of creature in metal armor composed of the same material as the control unit on his forehead and the spheres he was interfacing with.

From what remained in the records one could assume that this was where they wanted it to be, or at least the right general area in interstellar terms. The entry related to the battle and escape to this system lacked any indication this was an emergency landing instead of a successful blockade run. There was nothing substantial to back that up though, and for the time being it seemed best to let whatever that thing in the stasis pod was, for now it was best to leave it there.

[-]

Someone sighed behind her. Sleepily she opened her eyes as she turned to look back, and beheld a content sleeping face framed by blood red hair. There was something familiar about it that tickled at the back of her mind.

"Don't mind Signum. You wouldn't think it but she's a hugger." A voice said.

Turning in its direction she saw a woman with blond shoulder length hair, and it occurred to her that she was lying in the same bed as the aforementioned.

"How did I get here? And who are you people?"

The blond woman looked apologetic. "We were afraid of that." She lifted herself up on an elbow. "You were badly corrupted. The Book of Darkness was only able to restore you yesterday."

"Book of Darkness?" Something about a book tickled faint memories, but a Book of Darkness?

The blond woman reached out in a comforting manner. "What do you remember, Astra?"

The name tickled faint memories of a bow. She instinctively reached to her neck, where a pendant of a stylized shield emblazoned with a bow hung. What was it's name?

"Grandiva, the bow of ice." The blond woman supplied.

"What happened to me?"

"As far as I can remember it happened during the fall of Velka, but I'm fuzzy on the details. Signum might be able to tell you more, the two of you were close."

[-]

Astra sat uncomfortably at the Yagami breakfast table. She felt that the faces around her were both familiar and unfamiliar, with this nagging sense that something was wrong. To her left was the stately red head that had been hugging her when she'd woken up. To her right was a smaller red head girl that still seemed to waking up, and in front of her was a brown haired girl that Shamal was doting over. The pair of them had been responsible for breakfast, and done a good job of it.

"I'm glad to finally meet you, Astra. Shamal was telling me that you and Signum were really close. Does that mean you were all lovey dovey?" Master Hayate asked enthusiastically. For such a young girl to be so enthusiastic about such a thing struck her as odd, but maybe it was exactly because she was young and didn't really understand the ramifications yet.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Signum pause, her chopsticks only halfway between her food and her mouth. "I honestly don't remember." She said finally. She noticed Signum started eating again as soon as the words had left her mouth.

"Why don't you spend some time with each other? That way you might remember something." The Master seemed to be determined on that point.

[-]

"Would you like to spar?" Signum asked after they'd been shooed out of the house.

"I guess." She wasn't quite sure how that'd work, what with the city.

"Follow me."

They walked for over a kilometer to a secluded alleyway, when Signum stopped. Unless 'spar' was actually a euphemism for something else she didn't see how they could spar here. There simply was not enough room.

"Laevantein, prepare Dimensional Transfer, destination the old training grounds."

"Initiating Dimensional Transfer." Laevantein declared with an enthusiasm that contradicted the normal affect of its master.

An intricate reddish purple circle appeared under their feet. A pair of overlapping triangles filled the core, each of their points covered by an intricate circle surrounding a glyph. The triangle on top had its core in turn filled by a stylized cross.

"Signum..."

"You really have forgotten if this is novel to you." Signum seemed to be slightly amused.

Faint memories began crawling back as she examined the circle. This was the complete Velkan circle. For most magic it was simply unnecessary to use it versus the abbreviated form of the Velkan triangle. Wherever they were going was not somewhere that was not easily accessed.

She started to say something, but suddenly felt a strong force pulling her upward.

[-]

When she regained her senses Astra found herself standing on large stone circle that was surrounded by blowing desert. The circle was engraved with a particularly intricate glyph and glowed faintly with magical power. The engravings in turn looked like they could have been freshly carved despite the great age of the place.

"Do you remember the time we spent here?" Signum asked, her street clothes flashing away and being replaced with a reddish-purple long tunic slit along the sides of the legs, and covered by a white jacket and half skirt.

"It seems oddly familiar."

Signum smiled subtly. "Grandiva, set up."

Astra realized that her clothes had been replaced by a blue long tunic, much like Signum's reddish-purple one, only without the jacket or half skirt. She quickly noted it was sleeveless and that a pair of black shorts were part of the costume. In her hand rested the comfortable weight of her bow. Around he left forearm was the wrapped a reinforced bracer with her right hand covered by a familiar archer's glove.

"I took the liberty of basing your armor after my own. If it's not to your tastes I'm sure the Master will be willing to change it for you. Grandiva, Schwert form."

"Schwert form." Her device acknowledged calmly from the reinforced bracer on her left arm.

The bow morphed and changed in her hands. She was left holding a double edged long sword as the sheath clattered to the stone below.

[-]

"According to our latest readings that ship has finally left our solar system." Balcus rumbled out.

"What about the confirmed power users?" Carleon asked courteously.

"According to our spies Nanoha Takamichi remains in her residence, and has had no contact with the other power users except via mailed DVDs. Intercept of these mail video packages has allowed us to infer with a high degree of confidence that the other ones left on the ship." Khan observed.

"The time to strike is now. We don't know when another of those ships will show up, and we will need to recover one of these power users if we are to understand what they are truly capable and thus be able to counter them effectively." Guyot's low voice rumbled smoothly.

"But she's just a child, according to the records she's just barely passed her ninth birthday." Edward von Purgstall objected.

"Both her and the other one displayed a level of capabilities that had not been previously known beyond this Council, and no small amount of havoc over the past months. I fail to see how her age is relevant under the circumstance." Khan interjected.

"Edward, given the circumstances do you think that we would be able to simply open a dialogue? As distasteful as this is, this new power has made it clear they feel they have free reign to enter Earth space.

And while we still haven't managed to unravel the details of what happened over the past several months, we do know that they were involved in the dimensional disruptions that threatened our planet. Something only Lord Alkanphel himself would be able to counter.

Even an army of the proposed HyperZoanoids wouldn't be enough to respond to a threat like this effectively. We need to better understand just what it is that we're dealing with. " Carleon explained.

"But that does not change the fact she is but a young child." Purgstall's objection proved to be unconvincing to his audience.

"Child or not, this the only foreseeable chance we have to insure this planet is able to survive. I will not ask you to participate in this action Purgstall, but unless you have further objections the council is in agreement that it must be done." Balcus declared levelly.

"I propose a night raid led by myself, Waferdanos, and Guyot. We will abduct the entire family to our secure base at Relic's Point, where I will be able to study the nature of her powers." Balcus outlined.

"I find this arrangement acceptable." Guyot said smoothly while looking around at his fellow Overlords to see if there were any objections.

"Then it is agreed." Waferdanos added.

[-]

Astra swung at Signum's head, which was almost casually blocked as Signum brought up her sword. She twisted and moved around to redirect the sword, but Signum sliced it away. The point of Signum's blade came to rest with the point aimed at her chest, and her blade in an awkward position.

"That was a good effort, but not good enough." Signum commented.

Astra was sure that she should be out of breathe and sore by now, but some reason she was neither although she could feel her energy waning. Come to think of it she wasn't sure that she was even really breathing. It was an odd feeling.

"I'm getting better." She responded. She had yet to get close to even touching Signum.

"I see." Signum smiled.

She dodged out of the way of the follow up blow. She'd learned blocking wasn't an option after the first one she'd tried that with sent her flying. She rushed into the resulting opening, forcing Laevantein's blade down with her own as she slid her own blade up until it rested next to Signum's throat.

Astra paused before sheathing the sword. "You let me have that one. Normally you'd have just batted me away."

"You're exhausted." Signum observed. "And I'd like to take a rest too."

Astra noted that Signum's hold on Laevantein wasn't entirely steady anymore. It seemed even Signum couldn't keep throwing those heavy strikes forever.

[-]

"You did well." Signum observed as they appeared back in the secluded alley.

"You can say that with a straight face after you manhandled me like a child?"

"If it had been in the air it would have been a lot closer."

"You're just trying to flatter me. So where to next? Master Hayate probably won't be satisfied if we just said that we sparred."

Signum looked like she might have chuckled at that, but it was hard to tell when she was covering her mouth and maintaining that stoic air. "No, no she probably wouldn't. The Master however wishes to see things that aren't there."

Astra looked over at Signum and allowed herself to relax a little.

[-]

Shamal greeted them at the door. "How was it?"

"If I didn't know better Shamal, I'd think you wanted me to steal Signum away from you." Astra responded.

Astra was pretty sure Signum laughed, but it was hard to tell with her normal stoic affect while covering her mouth.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I've seen the way you set things up so Signum is playing the dad, and you're playing the mother." Astra paused as Shamal suddenly glared at her.

"Who's a mother?" Shamal demanded. Astra was taken aback by the sudden aggressive reaction, as Shamal started advancing on her.

"You really shouldn't have said that." Signum commented from the sidelines.

[-]

Astra glanced cautiously in "Older Sister" Shamal's direction as they sat down for dinner. It had taken quite a while for her to finish her tirade, and she was pretty sure that Shamal was still fuming. She wasn't quite sure why it was such a big issue to her, but apparently she'd convinced Signum to officially pretend to be Hayate's mother instead of her.

"So did you enjoy your date?" Astra wondered if Master Hayate interest in this was really due to her having always been alone. Signum's stoic and stately manner made her a de facto stand in father figure, but "Older Sister" Shamal was not really interested in filling in the role of the corresponding mother figure.

"Yes, but the details have no place at the dinner table."

Hayate looked disappointed, but was understanding.

[-]

"I'll sleep on the couch."

Signum paused. "Why?"

"I'm not interested in being a living replacement for your body pillow." Astra said jokingly.

"I see." Signum smiled subtlety. "It gets a little cold down here. Would you like a body pillow to help warm you up?"

"I'll be fine. Cold is my area of specialty, remember? Besides I'd prefer not to encourage Master's notions."

[-]

Nanoha woke up, there was something weird that had disrupted her sleep.

"Unknown energy sources approaching. Estimated distance 500 yards." Raging Heart noted.

Nanoha nudged Yuuno. After some prodding he woke up groggily. She noticed that the clock indicated it was past midnight. What could it possibly be?

"Nanoha?" Yuuno asked, still not quite awake. "What's that massive energy reading approaching us?" He asked suddenly very awake.

Nanoha looked out the window to see large figures approaching in the darkness, moving from cover to cover. She quickly pulled on some day clothes, and picked up Raging Heart. She didn't know who they were, but they clearly weren't friendly.

"Raging Heart, set up." She activated Flyer Fin, and opened the window before bolting out.

Yuuno threw up a barrier almost instantly, which almost immediately started to get hit by laser fire from the figures on the ground. Yuuno seemed to be adjusting the fields to be more optimal as it showed less signs of being strained. There were a lot of them, and they weren't congregating.

"Raging Heart, Divine Shooter." She finally decided, calling four pink magical bullets into existence. She closed her eyes and focused sending them towards the figures on the ground. The first set succeeded in hitting their targets in the head, knocking them out.

Nanoha was just about to deploy another set when she sensed something coming screaming in. She quickly threw up a shield, and just as quickly found she needed to reinforce it as the projectiles started to try to warp her shield out of the way.

"How do you like my gravity bullets?" A demonic creature announced, cackling.

"Divine..." She had to break off the buster in order to throw up a shield as an energy attack came in from another direction. Nanoha looked around to see the demon, a werewolf, and an old man with a glowing red jewel in his forehead hovering around her. The figures from before broke from cover to rush the house, and as they passed streetlights she could catch glimpses of bulky, hairy, bat like creatures that were covered in armor plates, and had some kind of rifle thing attached to large backpacks.

What to do? What to do? "Flash move."

Nanoha tried to fly around so she could get away from these three, and stop the bat creatures from attacking her family. She suddenly found that everything felt exceptionally heavy, and the Flash Move expended itself without her really having gone anywhere as she started to fall. The Flyer Fin no longer able to keep her aloft.

"I'm afraid this is where you and the ferret will be coming with us." Declared the old man.

She struggled to lift up Raging Heart. "Divine..." She charged it as much as she could, her arms threatening to give out the entire time. "Buster!"

The three lifted their arm up in unison, and she looked on in horror as her attack splashed off their barrier flowing around and back at her.

[-]

Astra woke up and dragged herself out from under the blanket she'd put on the couch. She needed to use the restroom. After making her way to the facilities, and doing her business she came back and noticed that Signum was sleeping on the other couch with her body pillow. She paused.

Part of her was touched. Signum looked so content when she was asleep. She paused near her, and Signum's eyes fluttered open.

"Did I wake you?" Astra asked jokingly.

"Don't worry about it." Signum responded in that controlled and level tone of hers, while still clearly conveying that she was sincere. Astra wouldn't put it past Signum to actually view this as some kind of training to be a better knight.

"What are you doing down here?"

"Shamal insisted that I sleep down here with you." There were no objections or reservations in her voice, simply a stating of the facts.

"Am I putting a burden on you?" Astra teased despite herself.

"Of course not."

Astra paused for a moment steeling her resolve. "What was the nature of our relationship back during the time of Velka?"

"You were my partner, my wingman." She could hear the respect and admiration reflected in Signum's voice.

Astra tired of looking down at Signum's reclined form decided to just go ahead and sit down. She giggled a little bit and relaxed. "Is that all? The way Shamal said it, you'd think we were intimate."

Signum looked at her sleepily. She probably should just let her sleep, even it would surprise her if Signum would be willing to spend a night out in the cold drenched in water for the sake of training to be a better knight. "That was a long time ago, and we're not the same people we were back then. Even if we were, that doesn't mean we'd have to be now."

Astra smiled, and touched Signum's arm comfortingly. "I'll let you get some sleep."

"Don't mind me." Astra looked over to see Master Hayate sitting there, clearly having just come out of the kitchen.

Astra walked over to Master Hayate. "Come on, you need to get back to bed." Master Hayate looked disappointed.

Astra started rolling Master Hayate back towards her room. "Do you like Signum, Astra?" Master Hayate asked while looking back.

"You're very precocious, Master Hayate, and I can see why the others like you so much. You treat us like not only like people, but like family. To answer your question I'm still getting my bearings, but yes she's an important person to me."

Master Hayate smiled up at her seemingly content. Astra finished rolling her back to her room, and helping her back to bed. Vita had seemed troubled when she'd entered to room, but seemed to calm down when Hayate returned to the bed with her. It was kind of cute in its own way. It wasn't like they had the necessary number of rooms or beds for people to not have to share anyway.

As Hayate began to settle in, the Book of Darkness sitting on the shelf caught her eye. Picking it up Astra started to flip through it and stopped when she noticed a labeled Velkan circle. Properly oriented with the Velkan cross, she noticed that the notation next to the top circle look like it had been smudged and was unreadable. The left and right circles of the underlying triangle had Shamal and Zafira's names notated next to them in addition to a lot of small highly technical Velkan text. Signum in turn was notated next to the circle at the base of the cross triangle, the only one that intersected with the actual Velkan cross. Her and Vita were notated in the corresponding left and right circles, with the master occupying the lone circle in the center of both the Velkan circle and the Velkan cross. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but something about it seemed strangely familiar.

She flipped through a few more pages and noted that the pages were shifting and modifying themselves. Quickly flipping to the end she noticed that slowly new text was being added to the end. That was weird. Then there was that weird dissonance she felt when she looked at the modifications occurring. After flipping through it some more and reading a few more entries that caught her eye, she finally decided to close it and put it back.

The house was quiet as she made her way back down the ramp to the living room. The circle came back to her mind, and she had to wonder who the obscured person was. Had they both been corrupted, and if so how had the system compensated? Faint memories tickled her, but refused to form into anything comprehensible.

She noticed Signum wasn't quite asleep when she returned to the living room. She debated for a few seconds before finally asking. "Would you mind some company?"

Signum smiled subtly. "What changed your mind?"

"I have a lot of questions running around in my head right now. Don't read too much into it."

Signum stood up, walked over to her, and hugged her gently.

[-]

Richard Feynman in his official biography had a few choice things to say about how the security of the Manhattan Project was managed. It seemed Chronos had fallen into a similar trap. Relic's Point was the largest and most important Chronos research facility on the planet, with it's only real competitor being the Arizona facility. It's mere existence was a rather high level secret, but the actual security of the facility was rather lax.

To be sure there were guards and cameras, but those were largely a token effort related to dissuading people from getting close. They kept test subjects and scientists in control by processing them in such a fashion that they required adjustments every few days from technology only Chronos possessed, or they'd begin to rapidly breakdown. Actual production models in turn underwent extensive conditioning that in theory served to insure their loyalty. On the face of it, it seemed like a brilliant system that covered every possible contingency. That was if you discounted the potential for a saboteur armed with with hardware that significantly exceeded Chronos' own. Such an oversight would normally be forgivable as entirely reasonable, but in this case he was going to exploit it.

According to his sources Balcus had returned after apparently snatching up some particularly choice test subjects. His sources didn't have sufficient clearance to reveal any details about the nature of these choice test subjects, but that really wasn't that important. Balcus was here and had locked himself away in a research lab with most of Chronos' best scientists. It was simply too ideal of an opportunity to ignore.

Checking his map Agito made his way to the nearest restroom to the research lab. There was no reason to give them more warning or knowledge about what they were dealing with then was absolutely necessary. As expected the restroom was unoccupied, and thus he was able to remove his trooper disguise and transform without incident before stashing them in a bag he'd brought along for the purpose. The ceiling didn't provide meaningful resistance to his laser, and within seconds he was up in the ducting spaces, and had stashed the uniform where it wouldn't be found.

Less then a minute later we was hovering above Balcus. He waited until Balcus was talking to one of his assistants, and then opened up a chest plate. Through the suit's vision he could see Balcus look puzzled and glance up just before the cannon fired. Balcus and everything at least two kilometers behind him ceased to exist. He popped his head in and killed the rest of the scientists with laser bursts before they even had a chance to process what had just happened.

Dropping down he flew over to where Balcus' personal terminal was still logged in. Pulling out a flash drive he'd prepared if such a chance presented itself, he plugged it in and initiated its contents. A rather complicated set of commands, worms, and viruses were uploaded to and spread across the global Chronos Network's high speed data lines. With any normal account they'd have been shutdown by the various mainframes security systems before they managed to get anywhere, but Balcus did not have a normal account.

The highlights were that it would travel across the Chronos data lines, planting code that would destroy all the existing databases of Zoanoid research and corrupt the programming of all connected Processing Tanks in a simultaneous fashion. He'd set things up so that the destruction contingencies for processed individuals would kick in after three days, and made sure to make the programming modifications subtle, hard to detect, and immune to simple reflashing. The result should be the destruction of most of Chronos test subjects and scientists, which combined with having to try to restore their Git servers from back ups should drastically slow them down.

Through the suit vision he saw a heavy squad was on their way. He glanced at the terminal, and noted that the upload was complete. There was nothing more he needed to do here. He ejected and removed the drive before bringing up a hand. He blew away the terminal with an energy blast that wouldn't leave any useful remains.

Just as he was about to leave a pink staff with a red sphere caught his eye. He walked over and picked it up. What was this thing supposed to be? It didn't really seem Chronos style.

"What are you supposed to be?" He asked idly.

"My master is being held hostage." Uh-huh, so the thing talked.

"Who is this master of yours?" That should fit within the chat bots conversation parameters.

"She's a powerful mage." The staff responded.

"Mage? So what, she practices magic?" Yeah, right.

"Observe. Divine Buster."

"Divine wha?" A black grid spun into being in the direction of the door the heavy squad was approaching from, and he felt the staff drawing power from him.

A second later the armored door was no longer there, and the heavy squad was lying in an unconscious heap thanks to a dark energy blast.

"Let's go find your master." Agito finally said after he got his presence of mind back.

[-]

It took him roughly half an hour to figure out where the staff was trying to guide him, although part of that was due to stopping and destroying targets of opportunity, like the power boxes supplying the main security control room. It ultimately proved to be a small highly secure set of holding cells near the bottom of the facility.

The guards proved to be a few Ramotiths that were not an obstacle of consequence, dying before they even had the chance to transform. He picked up one of the guards ID cards from their rapidly dissolving remains and plugged it into the slot on the brig's terminal. A quick search of the database dump on his UMPC gave him the password, and he was in.

The cell block was listed as only having one occupant, who hadn't been processed yet. The record also indicated there were four associated prisoners currently being analyzed in process tanks, all flagged as potential HyperZoanoid candidates. He paused as the ramifications of that and the apparent age of the occupant of the cell block came together.

He walked over to the appropriate door and extending the blades on his arms slashed it open. Due to the way he'd done the slice the piece of armor steel fell towards him, hitting the ground with an echoing thud. The girl and not-ferret looked on with an appropriate level of horror.

[-]

"Her or the ferret?" The black demonic looking creature asked in a strangely synthetic voice while glancing in Raging Heart's direction, and drawing her attention to it's presence.

"She is my master." Raging Heart responded in her normal calm voice.

The creature tossed Raging Heart in her direction before turning around and starting to walk away, apparently unconcerned. She caught her staff managing to just avoid fumbling it. This didn't fall within the realm of what she'd expected to happen today.

She looked at Yuuno, who looked to be as puzzled as she felt. "Mr. Demon, sir. What are you doing?"

The demon appeared to be grabbing its chest for some reason. "Stand back, look away and cover your ears." It said in that same highly synthetic voice. She noticed one of the metal orbs on its head was tracking her, even though it wasn't looking in her direction.

She decided it was best to comply with what the thing said for the moment. A second later there was a massive roar. When she glanced in the direction the demon was facing, the wall and all the rock between it and the sky had ceased to exist, leaving a large tunnel that she could easily fly through. Her Starlight Breaker couldn't do that, yet.

"Come on."

[-]

"Aren't we going to the city?" She asked as the demon dived into the tree cover well short of the city they were scarcely three kilometers away from.

"No, but we want them to think we might have. It's best to have your enemy looking for you where you are not." The demonic armor pulled away and vanished into thin air leaving behind a well built man.

Nanoha was at a loss. She whirled her arms around. "Mr. Demon, sir just what are you?"

"Human." The man said simply. That didn't answer her question!

The man walked into a group of bushes and walked out with a motorcycle. He looked at her, and paused. "How old are you, eight?"

"I'm nine." Nanoha answered.

The man sighed. "There's no easy way to say this. Your family is dead. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I'd advise that you don't go into that city. The populace is not what they appear to be."

Nanoha felt the ground was falling out from under her. She heard the man sigh as if at a great distance. "I'm not going to leave you out here."

[-]

Shizu heard a familiar engine approaching, and ran outside. Agito pulled up with a young girl sitting behind him, holding on for dear life.

"Welcome back, Master Agito." She greeted.

"Shizu, she just lost her family. Could you console her?"

"Of course." The girl had a thousand yard stare.

[-]

Agito unzipped his jacket enough for the ferret to pop his head out, after he entered the cabin. "How long do intend to play the dumb animal?"

"How did you know?" The ferret asked, managing a rather human voice considering the differences in lung capacity, as well as the significant differences in skull and mouth structures. The creature seemed to be concerned.

"That would involve a rather long and complicated explanation, involving a lot of answers I don't actually have." Agito answered, as he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. "How do you think she'll take it?"

"You could have been nicer about it. She just lost her family." He didn't know the half of it.

"I'm not the person to be consoling her right now. My contributions come later. Along those lines are there any other mages, or is it just you two?"

"Well there's TSAB. They might be willing to help considering the circumstances."

[-]

"You look troubled, Master Agito."

He glanced at Shizu. "If I wasn't, I really would be a monster."

Shizu pulled up a chair and sat down. "Is this about back then, or did you?"

"It was by my hand, but not my intention. Chronos had already gotten them into the tanks, and were going to use them as test subjects. I just prevented the horror and agony from being drawn out. Or at least that's what I want to tell myself."

He could tell Shizu was appropriately horrified. She had just gotten done consoling the girl for several hours, only for him to state he was responsible for their deaths. That there was a reason for it did not make it any better. Despite what Chronos had done they were still innocents, and while rationally there was nothing that could be done that didn't mean one could just ignore the visceral reaction when faced with having to console and care for the child of the deceased.

"As Stalin noted, it's a lot easier when they're just a statistic." He paused. "If I had to do it over again I wouldn't change anything. When I look at the larger picture my actions were necessary, but that doesn't mean they were right."

"So what are you planning to do now?"

"We'll let Chronos chase it's tail for a little bit while we look into this organization of mages. We don't have the resources to destroy Chronos infrastructure directly, but this TSAB might be willing to help us with that."

He pulled out a reinforced suitcase, and laid it on the bed. "You're the only person I could think of to entrust this to, Shizu."

She glanced at the suitcase but made no motion to take it. "What is it, Master Agito?"

"It's an armor suit like mine. The last one of its kind as far as I know. You're the only one I'd trust to stop me if I really did become a monster."

[-]

The members of the Council looked at each other uncomfortably. Balcus had been the one who had brought them together under the reign of Lord Alkanphel. There'd never been any debate about his right to command as Alkanphel's second when their master was absent, but now he was gone. With Lord Alkanphel still absent there was an issue of who was to lead in his absence. All of them knew they didn't have enough support amongst the others to be accepted to the position.

"I think the most pressing issue right now is finding out the identity of the attackers that killed Hamilcar." Purgstall interrupted the silence.

"And where would we even start? We've never encountered anything like the weapon used to do it. We have no surviving records of any of our cameras seeing it, and all of the Zoanoids that might have seen it are dead.

If it was that magical gunner girl's friends, we might be able to use her family as leverage. If it however is a third power then we know nothing about them. We can't find out the identity of an attacker when we don't even have the most basic information to know where to even begin, my dear Lord Purgstall." Khan's condescension towards the younger Zoalord rang through clearly.

"Our defenses are proving to be increasingly inadequate. We need to accelerate our technological and Zoanoid development if we are to respond to these new threats." Jabir Hayyan interjected.

"We will need a replacement for Balcus in order to do that. No one understood Zoaform technology as well as him." Sin Amniculus objected.

"There is Doctor Hekkaring." Waferdanos observed.

[-]

Author's Notes:

The heavy squads are basically transformed Ramotiths that are loaded down with gear, if that wasn't clear enough. The re-imagined TV series added laser rifles and rather potent grenades to Chronos arsenal. I think it's only appropriate that Chronos actually uses those, especially during this early period when Ramotiths are actually rather cutting edge.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer:

Series referenced include Guyver and Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's & StrikerS. This fic uses a fusion of these two universes.

This author sees no part of ad revenue related to and this is written for fun rather then profit. The following fanfic intentionally breaks away from continuity to avoid issues related to plagiarism or excessive lack of originality.

[-]

"You couldn't sleep either?"

Nanoha shook her head.

Agito had, had the nightmare about the day his parents had died again. Only this time him as he was now was the one responsible, and Nanoha was ultimately the victim. He had given up on trying to go back to sleep after that, and come down here to the kitchen to try to take his mind off things and at least do something productive by starting to sift through the data he'd gotten off the Chronos Mainframes.

"I don't blame you. I was only able to sleep after my parents deaths because I was emotionally exhausted from trying to deal with it."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not something either of us should have had to deal with. Would you like some orange juice?"

She nodded, and he walked over to the refrigerator. "It wasn't your fault. Chronos' intends to rule the world. You just happened to grab their interest enough to get a preview of what they're going to do to everyone."

Nanoha accepted the glass of juice quietly.

"I'm not making you feel any better am I? I'm afraid you're going to find that you're going to grow up faster then any of us would prefer." Agito paused for a moment closing his eyes. "What do you do when the world around you is evil? What do you do when the people around you are just as much the enemy as some easily identifiable power? That's a problem that's been discussed throughout the centuries."

Agito paused, noting he had Nanoha's attention.

"One of the first men to do so was Niccolo Machiavelli. Part of why he is remembered the way he is, is because under such circumstances one is left to seriously consider courses of action that in a good and sane world are recognized as evil. Sometimes an evil act however is necessary in order to prevent a greater evil, and for this reason you need to always understand the ramifications of your decisions both for good and ill."

"What happened to your parents?" Nanoha asked quietly after an extended pause.

"They owned a large and successful business caring for the elderly and infirm. My Uncle runs this nation's largest pharmaceutical company, which in turn runs several of the major hospitals. He pulled some strings to create a number of artificial scandals, and legal injunctions against my parent's business. All those my parents had helped, their families, and their employees abandoned them as the money dried up and the debts began to rack up. The only exception was Shizu who my family had adopted as their own daughter, and her grandfather.

My Uncle did it all simply because he was unable to produce an heir, and unwilling to adopt someone outside the family. So he drove his brother to bankruptcy so he could force him to sign custody of me over, to forgive the debt. Afterwards my parent's were unable to live with what they'd done and hanged themselves when I was scarcely older then you." Even now, even after the nightmare, it was unpleasant to talk about it, but the girl needed to appreciate the nature of the monsters she was dealing with. The girl was appropriately horrified and having a hard time even comprehending such a thing.

He sighed. "I wish I could shield you from this. You're far too young to have to deal with this in any kind of sane and just world.

Sadly the world we live in is one that's progressively falling under the control of a secret organization that has very little concern about the ants they step on in achieving their designs or whims. What I did before I saved you should have hurt them quite a bit, but unless Yuuno's friends allows us to follow through it's only going to slow them down a little."

Agito watched as the dose of soporific he'd slipped into the juice started to take effect. The girl needed her sleep, and not to be haunted by nightmares tonight. She'd been through more then enough for one day. He carried her back to her room, and returned to his work.

[-]

Astra groggily opened her eyes as someone giggled. She caught a glimpse of Hayate, as she heard the faint sound of Hayate working her wheelchair in the direction of the kitchen. She felt Signum stir behind her.

"It looks like Hayate saw us." She commented.

Signum grumbled something groggily in response. Astra nudged her in the ribs.

"Wha?" Signum was still half asleep.

"Hayate saw us."

"Is that a bad thing?" Signum almost sounded grumpy.

"She's going to get the wrong idea."

"The Master misunderstands many things."

She felt Signum settling down and holding her at little tighter. "You're going back to sleep?"

Signum didn't respond, and she could feel Signum's breathing evening out. She debated elbowing Signum in the ribs, before deciding that Signum had the right idea and gave into her own desire to sleep just a little longer.

[-]

Vita walked into the dining room with her stuffed rabbit, still half asleep.

"Shamal, do you think they got all lovey-dovey last night?"

"Well they are sleeping in rather late."

Vita looked around blearily before remembering who lived in the house, doing process of elimination, and recalling they were on the couch. She looked over in that direction, and noticed that the pair were still asleep.

[-]

Hayate carefully wheeled herself into the living room, while balancing a bowl of Miso soup in her lap. She stopped next to the still unconscious pair. Signum was lying behind Astra, hugging her from behind. Both looked like they were happy and content.

She wafted her hand over the bowl in Signum's direction. Signum stirred first, her face taking on it's normal stoic affect, and Astra started to stir in response. She seemed to be smiling happily about something.

"Good morning, Master Hayate." Astra greeted, Signum still not quite ready to wake up.

"Good morning."

Astra glanced back in Signum's direction, before whispering conspiratorially. "Signum really doesn't like the cold. No matter how she adjusted her blanket it always ended up being drafty somewhere. So she came over to me and asked me if I'd sleep with her because, seems as how my specialty is ice that clearly I'd be more tolerant of the cold."

Hayate giggled in response, not buying a word of it.

Signum's eyes fluttered open. "Master Hayate?" She asked groggily.

"Good morning, Signum." Hayate greeted.

"I was just telling her about how you'd been cold last night." Astra prompted.

"Is that what you were saying?" Signum asked, taking the blanket with her when she sat up and taking to pro-offered bowl of soup.

Astra sat up next to her, looking enviously at the blanket for a few minutes before pulling part of it in her direction, wrapping it around both of them. "I also told her about how you were leaving me out in the cold."

"I see." Signum reached her arm around Astra, and bodily picking her up moved Astra to her lap before wrapping the blanket around both of them. "Better?" Signum asked.

Astra looked at her startled. "Yeah." She said quietly after a moment.

[-]

"We kind of konked out there." Astra commented while she worked on redoing Signum's braided circlet hairstyle. Signum had let it down when she'd went to sleep, and now that breakfast was done with she'd wanted to redo it.

"We used a lot of energy, and our Master isn't entirely ideal. There's no reason to cause excessive strain to her, so we asked to Book to reduce the strain on her whenever possible." Signum responded.

Astra remembered how Hayate had been subtly struggling at things she shouldn't be. "She fading isn't she? How long?"

Astra could feel Signum tense as she looked down. She could read her mood well enough to tell she was turning in on herself. "The doctor's not sure. It could be a few months, or maybe a year."

Astra abandoned the braids and tried to comfort Signum by hugging her from behind. "Is there anything we can do?"

"The Master has forbidden us from fighting." Signum turned looking directly at her, and Astra could the depth of her grief. "The Master fears us coming to harm, and wishes to instead allow us to continue like this as her family. She believes this is best, but she doesn't properly understand." Astra held her comfortingly shoving her own grief over the situation to the side as best she could.

"Sometimes you have to disobey the letter of an order, in order to fulfill its intent." The words came spilling out of her mouth, mindlessly recited from some half forgotten memory before even her own mind had caught up.

Signum smiled slightly. "The rest of us concluded the same a month ago. We've forsaken our honor so that our Master might live and be able to enjoy her dream of a peaceful life."

[-]

"Am I interrupting?" Signum asked.

Astra shook her head. Laying the book to the side. "No, I was just..."

Signum smiled in understanding, and nothing more needed to be said. "Shamal wants to know if you're coming to bed."

"Is it that time already?" Astra asked in wonder while she looked at the nearest clock. Signum waited patiently on her, as Astra noted it had indeed gotten that late already.

"Would you prefer some company? The guest room is unoccupied, so you don't have to sleep on the sofa if you're not ready to go to bed yet."

"I'm just trying to come to terms. She's just a child. Sure she's a little precocious, and a lot more responsible then most children her age, but..." Astra started to choke up.

"I understand." Signum pulled up a seat, and touched her arm in a comforting manner.

[-]

Hayate quietly opened to door to the guest room and entered. Signum and Astra were both in the bed, like she'd expected. Signum appeared to be holding Astra, whose head was buried in Signum's shoulder. She couldn't see Astra's face from this angle but Signum was smiling contentedly a caring expression on her face.

After looking at them for a few minutes she worked the wheels in different directions to turn herself around in place, and wheeled herself out. They deserved to be left in peace.

[-]

"Good morning." Hayate greeted.

Signum walked in her hair freshly braided, in a pair of pants and a nice blouse. Astra walked a step behind her in similar attire. They were engrossed in a conversation, but turned at her greeting and acknowledged her.

"Good morning, Master Hayate." They two said in unison before glancing in each others direction, startled.

Hayate giggled.

[-]

Master Hayate had played with Vita for a while after breakfast, but then had gone to her room in order to read. It sounded like she was almost finished with this group of books, and they'd be going to the library soon so she could get more. She looked forward to going with her to the library in order to check out some books of her own.

She knocked on the door to Master Hayate's room. "Master Hayate, is it alright if I come in?"

"Of course." Master Hayate called back through the door.

Astra opened the door to find Master Hayate lying on her bed having just put down a book she was reading. That seemed to be one of her favorite spots.

"That looks like it's a good book, Master Hayate."

"Do you like to read, Astra?"

"Yes, I..." Astra stopped as she experienced some vertigo trying to remember, reaching out to the nearest wall to steady herself.

"Are you okay?"

Astra managed to reassert her bearings, and pull herself together. When she looked in Mater Hayate's direction it was to see that she'd somehow managed to get back into her wheelchair, and had almost wheeled herself over to her.

"I'm fine." She said after a moment, walking uncertainly to the nearest chair. It seemed she really was broken.

Hayate looked at her clearly concerned. "Would you be interested in making some modifications to my Knight's Armor?"

[-]

"Hey Shamal." Astra greeted.

Shamal just stopped for a moment. "Did you ask Hayate-chan to change your Knight's Armor?"

"I needed something to carry my Blendenfliegen, cartridges, and pre-prepared arrows. I decided I wanted one of those half skirts while I was at it." She had a pair of bags hanging at her hips, that would shift over to one side if she turned Grandiva into a sword and needed to sheath him. The quiver on her back in turn had a snap over flap to prevent arrows stored there from falling out during fast and complex aerial maneuvers.

Shamal clutched her box of cartridges protectively. Given Grandiva loaded them on five round clips, she didn't blame her.

[-]

"In response to recent events I've taken the liberty of having our top scientists and those test subjects deemed irreplaceable put into cryostorage until such time as we are able to rectify the damage to our processing tank infrastructure." Khan declared.

"What of the rest?" Yentsui asked.

"They will simply have to be replaced. The number of cryostasis pods we have are limited."

[-]

The phone rang. Sho went ahead and picked it up knowing that he was the only one home at the moment.

"Sho, did you hear?" Tetsuro's voice sounded like it was tearing up.

Sho couldn't think of anything that'd make Tetsuro so emotional. "About what?"

"Natsuki." Sho could hear that Tetsuro was choking up.

Sho had a sinking feeling in his gut. "What happened?"

"She went through with it and she, she didn't come back. They think she's dead."

He'd never been that close to Natsuki, as she'd always been more of Tetsuro's friend, but it still hit him hard. He'd watched his mother die when he'd been a child. He'd felt guilty even though there was no way he would have been able to do anything about it. Natsuki however was something could have and should have done something about.

[-]

"Hold down the house everyone." Hayate said. She was going on the weekly shopping trip with Shamal and Zafira.

They watched the three leave until they were out of sight, and nodded to each other.

[-]

The transport pad operator noticed a civilian code coming in. It corresponded to one Yuuno Scrya who'd been granted clearance as a guest of Captain Lindy. After going through the proper verifications she released the transport lock.

Three people, and a ferret, materialized on the pad none of whom matched Yuuno Scrya's picture. She pressed the button to call the guards. She was just about to greet them when alarms started going off, her console locked, and emergency lights started flashing. That had never happened before, what was going on?

The little girl clutched at the woman as two platoons of Marines rushed in followed by Instructor Lotte and Instructor Aria.

[-]

Agito smirked slightly, these people were afraid. He could see it in their eyes. The only question was what they were afraid of, although he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew. The catgirls however had something else, puzzlement as if they'd been expecting someone else.

"Come with us." One of the catgirls announced as what he presumed were their form of soldiers collectively pointed their staves at them while maintaining a reasonable distance.

"Why are you doing this?" Nanoha asked, but no one seemed to listen.

"Is that what you said to Natsuki?" Agito asked.

That flash of recognition in the eyes of the catgirl creatures was all he really needed. He gave Shizu the signal they'd agreed upon.

"I don't know…" One of the catgirls started to say.

"Don't you?" Agito asked skeptically. The catgirls looked like they were starting to panic. "We'll comply."

The nearest catgirl blinked. "You will?"

"Yes." Between both him and Shizu actively maintaining suit vision he rated their chances of successfully pulling something to be rather low. Especially given the subtle body language wasn't pointing to them being confident about their chances if it came to a fight.

[-]

Agito looked around casually as they were escorted around. With suit vision he was perceiving things well beyond the immediate walls, but their hosts didn't need to know that. So he allowed himself to fall back into old habits, while making it just obvious enough for it to not be obvious he was making it obvious.

While he couldn't perceive the entire base in any meaningful sense he could tell it was hanging in what was not space as he knew it. From the sense he was getting from the whispering thoughts of the other occupant of his head, it wasn't something _it_ was unfamiliar with. _It_ if anything seemed more at home with this then what he considered normal. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

As for their hosts Agito's expectations were quickly falling in line with his pessimism. There was clearly a dodgy element here, and there was a very real question of how much he'd actually be able to get help instead of just having a new thing to watch his back over. It wasn't hard to imagine an organization like this would want to study something like these suits. Even if they could only partially replicate some of its capabilities that could amount to a lot.

[-]

They were eventually led to a small conference room with a large monitor mounted in the wall, which the soldiers stayed outside of. Only the catgirls went in with them, taking up places on either side of the monitor. After they'd all filed in and the door had close the monitor came on showing an aging man with a well trimmed white beard.

"We don't have your friend. Captain Lindy and Enforcer Chrono were the last ones to see her, but they were attacked by an unknown and are still being hospitalized." The man said in greetings. That was odd given he hadn't seen any use of some form of communication devices, maybe he'd considered them important enough to watch the security feed? Or were there communication systems in play that didn't fit with the paradigms based on Earth technology?

"Is Fate here?"

He was pretty sure the man knew more then he was letting on, but with as little information as he has at this point there was little he could do about that. And what the man was holding back could actually have nothing to do with what had actually happened to Natsuki whatsoever. So they might as well start following up on whatever leads he'd provide them, but first he'd need to arrange talking with those people.

Given this was clearly a uniformed service with some degree of discipline and secrets that wasn't going to be easy. No matter how you cut it he was not only an outsider, but someone they were scared of. It was going to require a good bit of skill to negotiate the forest of issues involved.

"Yes, she's the one who found Captain Lindy and Enforcer Chrono. Given her record of good behavior we've temporarily put her trial on hold, and are currently holding her in the brig as a person of witness in this case of unknown attackers led by Enforcer Lanster. Captain Lindy requested you be provided clearance to visit her before the attack, and I have decided to grant this request."

Or he could just wait for the nine year old to make arrangements. That worked too.

[-]

Agito stopped maintaining suit vision shortly after they entered the brig, and tried to avoid giving away that he was fighting off a nausea spell while he leaned against a wall. As useful as it was to be able to do that, the perspective was unnatural and he could only tolerate it in bursts. He was hoping that he'd eventually adapt and start getting used to it, but today wasn't that day.

Fate was pretty much like Nanoha had described her over the past couple of days. A relatively quiet and disciplined girl that showed signs of various things a child shouldn't have to deal with. Between what had happened to the two of them he'd been having _those_ nightmares, again. Only this time he was the one responsible not his _Uncle_, not a self centered society, and not Chronos.

"Nanoha said you saved her. Thank you." Agito realized he'd let his eyes slip closed. Despite his best efforts his smile was pained.

"She's important to you isn't she?"

Fate nodded.

"I'm glad you both have someone like that. You'll take care of her won't you?"

Fate nodded and rushed off. He was going soft.

"Who are you?" Asked a redheaded animal girl. Probably some kind of canine. He wasn't feeling well enough to speculate.

He held up a hand, fighting to maintain his composure. "One moment. Shizu could we talk in private for a moment?"

Shizu picked up the hint, they managed to escape to one of the open cells.

"You're running a fever, Master Agito." She reached into her purse and pulled out a Motrin bottle offering it to him. He went ahead and took one, which helped to take the edge off.

"Master Agito, when's the last time you really slept?" It didn't take much thought for him to understand what she was getting at. Other then a few short hours here and there troubled by nightmares he hadn't slept since the day he'd found the ship almost a week ago. There'd just been too much to do.

"You can't run yourself ragged like that, Master Agito. You've already made yourself sick." That was just like Shizu. "And you're making me worry." Her lips weren't moving when she'd said the last.

"Okay Shizu, either I'm more out of it then I thought or we're hearing each others thoughts." Agito said.

"I hope he doesn't hear my thoughts about…"

"Shizu, you're broadcasting."

"Oh, I…" Shizu looked away.

"I don't know what you see in me. What I did back then was unforgivable."

"It's normal that you'd have an outburst, after walking in on that."

That being the bodies of his parents hanging from the rafters, the chairs they'd used knocked over nearby and their bodies still slowly swinging. Yohei had dragged him back to his room but Shizu had the misfortune of walking in on him in his grief. He'd been so worked up he'd attacked her, ultimately trying to strangle her before he'd realized what he was doing and went to pieces. She'd somehow found it within herself to comfort him after that, and be there and helped allow him to remain sane after he'd been adopted by the man who was actually responsible.

Even at that age though he had a hard time simply laying the blame at Genzo's feet. Yes, it had been Genzo's plan and intention, and it had been executed well even if his parents and Yohei were aware of what was going on. However his parents had owned a relatively large and prestigious business caring for people, which after a bit of artificial scandal had began losing customers and racking up debt. Ultimately the only ones who'd stayed with them were Yohei and his grandaughter Shizu who'd they effectively adopted. The massive debt in turn ultimately leading to them selling him to his Uncle, and their subsequent suicide due to not being able to live with what they'd done.

And as far as the rest of the world was concerned everything was just perfect. Just like various societies had been all to happy to effectively have their street people and undesirables problems quietly solved by Chronos. People never really asking where they'd went in any sense that went anywhere. Just like they'd been accepting of private prisons being turned into blood product factories until the owners cutting corners eventually contaminated their "product" with Hepatitis, or effectively turning the homeless into bloodfarms. As much as modern society tried to dress it up people were self serving and prone to sociopathic tendencies, and thus the only way to truly avoid becoming a victim was to be strong enough no one could harm you.

"Master Agito, you need to get some sleep." Shizu interrupted his musings.

He decided to give in, and take a nap on one of the cell's beds. It should be okay for a little while.

[-]

Admiral Graham's hand hovered over the button that would cause the cell to be sealed, and initiate cryogenic freezing of its occupants. The Council's orders were clear. Lost Logia of non-Al Hazardian origin was to be transferred to secure storage as quickly and quietly as possible.

Part of what made him hesitate was the preternatural perception Captain Lindy had suspected based on the nature of the escape of the first one. If they suspected what was going on there was no guarantees they wouldn't break out of the cell. Based on Captain Lindy's testimony two of TSAB's best had barely managed to contain a single one of these things operated by someone who wasn't really fighting back because she was trying to avoid killing anyone. Based on the dimensional readings they were looking at two of these things.

The Admiral sighed. Preservation of this base came before everything else, even standing orders of the Council. He wasn't going to risk throwing it away to try to capture two individuals that had shown no inclination to harm his personnel or facilities unless provoked. He canceled the prompt.

[-]

"He seems nice." Fate commented.

"He's not a bad person, and Shizu's nice." There was always something intimidating and distant about Agito Makashima. He did seem to care, but it was like he was afraid to show it.

There was an uncomfortable pause for a few minutes. "So what about you?" Nanoha finally asked.

Fate looked down at her shoes. "Lindy and Chrono were..." She trailed off, her voice getting quieter and quieter.

"The Admiral told me about that." Nanoha said while trying to be understanding. It had sounded rather bad. "Have you been able to go visit them?"

Fate shook her head. "I'm awaiting trial, and they're still recovering."

"Maybe we can convince the Admiral to let you go see them?" Nanoha looked around noticing Agito and Shizu weren't standing around in the hallway. "What happened to Agito and Shizu?" She asked out loud before her mind caught up with her mouth.

"They decided they needed some 'alone time', and ducked into one of the cells." Arf said with disdain pointing her thumb in the direction of an open cell.

Nanoha walked over to cell despite Arf's delayed attempt to stop her and looked in. Agito was lying on one of the cell beds sweating profusely, and Shizu looked like she'd collapsed and was also sweating profusely.

[-]

Admiral Graham looked at the pair with mixed emotions. This was the chance he'd needed, and he would have been a fool not to take it. He however could not shake the feeling he was consigning these two to a fate no one should be subjected to. It'd take a few days to prepare the dispatch, and it'd probably be a week before a ship would come by to pick them up. Until then they'd continue to sit frozen in time, in their cryopods.

"Move them to secured storage." He ordered.

He'd just have to tell the girls that they were very sick, and had died despite their best efforts due something so dangerous and highly infective they couldn't show them the bodies. They would ask questions, and maybe even fail to believe it, but it wouldn't leave any real loose ends. They were currently visiting with Captain Lindy and Enforcer Chrono, with the belief that the medical staff was treating these two.

[-]

"That should be it for the local TSAB forces, I'm not detecting any mages." Astra transmitted while closing her eyes, mentally controlling a dozen patrolling Blendenfliegen.

"Understood." Signum transmitted back.

"Do you want to wait for the reinforcements, or move onto the next world?" Astra transmitted from her safe hiding spot. She'd already begun having Grandiva prepare the Dimensional Transfer after the last guard, just in case there was a swift response that meant they needed to make a fast get away.

"Let's wait a bit, and see what they do."

"Understood."

[-]

"Sir, Administered World #26 is requesting immediate assistance. They're saying the local defense force was wiped out and is currently being hospitalized for a variety of wounds and energy drain."

A window with Enforcer Lanster popped up. "I'll send in my team."

"Wait." Admiral Graham tried to recall something he'd remembered from the Jewel Seeds case file. That's right, those two girls were both estimated by Captain Lindy to be of roughly AAA-class and had been noted as willing civilian volunteers. An offer to look more favorably on Fate's circumstances during her upcoming trial might be enough to get them on board.

It would violate the letter of several regulations governing the number of high powered mages that could operate in one area. However, doing so in normal space with this force shouldn't cause significant damage to the space-time continuum. It took a little more then that to cause the kind of dimensional collapses that had taken Al Hazard and Velka. Else the Dimensional Navy wouldn't have anything larger and more complicated then a glorified skiff to call their own.

These raids needed to stop. If it was who he thought it was, they needed to learn that they didn't have free reign over his jurisdiction. Attacking TSAB citizens and causing an increasing lack of confidence in the ability of TSAB to protect them among the Administered Worlds was unacceptable.

[-]

Enforcer Lanster opened the briefing."We don't know what's down there, but they took out a AA-class mage and a platoon of local ground forces. Whatever it is, is to be presumed armed and dangerous. Stay on your guard, and don't let yourself get separated from the group. The ground forces weren't concentrated, and by what reports we do have were quickly picked off.

For this mission we will have civilian volunteers Yuuno Scrya and Nanoha Takamichi, and probational volunteers Fate Testerossa and her familiar Arf flying with us. They will be providing additional B to AAA-class support for this mission.

Your mission is to protect them and the guy next to you until we know who or what we're dealing with. Dismissed."

[-]

"Looks like a platoon of Marines and five Mages, max rank AAA. I've got three arrows, and five cartridges left. You want to try to bag them, or call it a day?" Astra transmitted.

"How well do you think we can thin them out?" Signum sent in response.

"They're clustering up tight so they can fly easier. A long range bombardment attack straight into their core should take out at least ten of them that weren't able to avoid it due to the others getting in their way.

I think I should be able to get at least two of the Mages in the confusion before they catch on. We'll have our work cut out for ourselves, but they should give us around 200 pages. That should get us almost halfway there. Your call."

There was a pause. "We are the Wolkenritter, the Cloud Knights, no Mage shall stand before us. We will preserve our Master's smile. Commit to the attack. Astra, pick off targets of opportunity. Vita, focus on thinning out the small fry. I'll take the leaders."

[-]

The last time she'd participated in something like this had been the assault on the Garden of Time. The bulk of the Marines flew behind her, with a few flying in front of them led by Enforcer Lanster. Fate flew next to her with Arf carrying Yuuno.

She'd felt something weird since they'd transferred in, but she couldn't find a source for it. She'd asked Yuuno about it, but he hadn't though anything of it. She wondered what type of opponent they'd face.

She squinted. Was that a magical attack? A spiraling reddish-purple collection of energy was rapidly approaching. She suddenly felt a large source of magic appear behind her.

"Fate." She transmitted in warning.

"Flash move." Raging Heart noted as she pulled out of the group. She glanced back to see the swirling reddish-purple and a focused bluish-white attack meet in the middle of the group. The slower Marines were engulfed as the two attacks met. A massive explosion followed that sent even her tumbling. She could see that most of the Marines were dropping, their flight uncontrolled.

She saw a woman with a sword charging the still flying Enforcer Lanster, dodging out of the way of his bullet attacks as she charged in with her sword. She looked around for Fate, and saw her tumbling unconscious. She flew towards her at top speed, and managed to catch her. She quickly confirmed that Fate actually was unconscious. But how, she'd been sure that Fate had dodged out of the way in time to avoid taking that head on.

She looked for Arf, and spotted her just in time to see a small bluish-white triangle appear behind her head, and fire something that looked like an arrow. Arf rapidly started to be encased in ice, that spread to Yuuno before he realized what was happening. She immediately threw up a barrier behind her, only to find that it wasn't holding.

"Flash move." She dodged to the side, and sighed in relief when the blue energy arrow flew past. Then she noticed the metal comets stream past, bowling through the few Marines that were still flying. She had a sinking feeling, and rapidly turned bringing up her staff with one hand while holding Fate to her with the other. All she could focus on was the blade rushing towards her.

There wasn't time to throw up a shield, so she threw of a reinforced partial barrier in the blade's path trying to slow it down. Instead the flaming sword simply cleaved through her barrier, and her staff, sending Raging Heart flying. The impact sent her flying, tumbling uncontrollably for several long moments while she clutched Fate, before she was able to regain flight control. That however was only to be greeted with the vision of the sword's owner's blade leveled at her.

She glanced down at where Bardiche had been knowing that she'd have to let Fate fall to even try to use it, only to find it had been lost somewhere along the way. It was just s well even though she knew Fate's barrier jacket should allow her to take it, she couldn't let go. She noticed that there were only a few Marines still in the air, and those were being pursued by a girl in a red dress with a hammer. She saw several drop at once after some kind of spherical thing appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the back of their heads, shattering into lots of fragment.

"Surrender." The red haired owner of the sword said levelly.

"Is Yuuno okay?"

"Yuuno?" The red haired woman asked.

"He's a boy. Arf was carrying him."

"They're both fine." Nanoha turned slightly to see a blue haired woman with a bow and empty quiver hovering there. "We're not trying to kill anyone."

The girl in the red dress flew up creating a triangle around her. "The small fry have been eliminated." Nanoha stared, looking around as she realized that other then these three she was the only one still flying and without Raging Heart, or a Device of any kind, she could do little more then maintain Flyer Fin.

"You want to start cleaning up, Vita?" The blue haired woman asked.

"Why do I always have to clean up?" The girl in red dress griped.

"Would you like me to do it? It'll take me a few minutes to get over here." The blue haired woman asked.

"No, it's fine." The red head said a book appearing near her.

All of them had been shot down. All of them. Nanoha started to scream, and didn't react fast enough as the blade came down.

[-]

"Sir, the entire force just got wiped out."

Admiral Graham just had to sit down. The only ready forces he had left was his familiars. All the rest were either currently deployed elsewhere, or would need to stripped off their duties of guarding the base. Instead of being a show of force they'd just made a show of how impotent they were to stop them.

He needed the S-class Mages headquarters liked to hoard. He needed... He paused and brought up some reports on his personal screen, checking Captain Lindy and Enforcer Chrono's certification records. He then went over the sensor records from when that group had come in. The man had magic potential, quite a lot of it actually as was common for Earth mages.

The paperwork hadn't actually been filed yet. A few modifications to the records, a few phantom sensor malfunctions, and he'd have plausible deniability. And as a pair of civilian volunteers, there was no way headquarters would be able to snatch them out from under him. If worst came to worst the Council wasn't likely to notice and respond until after his staff had recovered from their injuries.

[-]

Author's Notes:

Astra is basically the Wolkenritter party's Rogue. If you fall victim to her tricks and traps you will get badly mauled, but in a straight up fight her weaknesses quickly become pronounced. Unlike the party Paladin (Signum) or Barbarian (Vita) she's not really a front liner, but that why she's a wingman.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer:  
Series referenced include Guyver and Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's. This fic uses a fusion of these two universes. The Puppet Masters by Heinlein is referenced by characters. Design concepts are borrowed from Starship Troopers and the Uchu no Senshi OVA series.

This author sees no part of ad revenue related to and this is written for fun rather then profit. The following fanfic intentionally breaks away from continuity to avoid issues related to plagiarism or excessive lack of originality.

[-]

"Welcome back to the land of the living." The Admiral greeted, idly playing with some kind of metal playing card.

Agito groaned despite himself. He felt oddly stiff. Glancing around he noticed that there was some rather sophisticated equipment assembled around him. He couldn't figure out the Earth analogues to all of them, but a heart and lung machine and what was clearly some rather sophisticated blood works weren't necessary in the treatment of a fever. He wasn't sure what was going on, but you didn't use this kind of hardware unless you were effectively bringing someone back from the brink of death.

"Could you come a little closer?" He whispered coarsely.

"Of course." The Admiral moved closer, leaning in.

Agito grabbed him. How weak his grip was reaffirmed his suspicions, but it was strong enough. "There's a funny thing I noted about this suit. When it activates, everything within a two meter radius is pulverized, even reinforced concrete."

He watched the understanding dawn in the old man's face.

"So are you interested in giving me some straight answers, now?"

"I didn't…"

"Don't try to bullshit me. I've got a splitting headache, and I'm not in the mood. Tell me, do you have anything under your command that could take out a large mountain?"

The man hesitated. "Yes?"

"Tell me about them."

[-]

His nice little chat with the Admiral had went better then he'd expected. It turned out they did have what he needed. It would require orbital bombardment using a starship specially adjusting a dimensional disruption weapon to use a fraction of its normal power, but the Admiral had assured him that it was possible. Not only that, but he was willing to provide him with resources if he just did this little task of being his operative while arrangements were made to finish repairs to the _Atlantia_.

He expected the Admiral to try to screw him over. Which is why he'd made a point to impress upon the British gentleman exactly why not helping him was an exceptionally bad idea, not because of what he'd do to him but because of what would happen if things already in motion weren't stopped.

[-]

Dr. Gutenberg adjusted his glasses, as he looked over the reports. The past week had been a boon to the Tech Division. With Zoanoid Processing brought to a standstill for the foreseeable future, they had were no longer forced to play second fiddle. The proper place for the Zoanoid was as an enhanced soldier that overcame the strength and durability limitations of normal humans. Zoanoid Processing was too obsessed with everything having to be integrated into the actual Zoanoid itself, which had delayed the introduction of Blaster types until a few months ago when upper management was suddenly not quite as interested in listening to Zoanoid Processing's excuses.

The Heavy Ramotith was better armored, stronger, more flexible, and could use its laser pack longer then their proposed Vamore. All while its reinforced emitter, thanks to being powered by a large backpack storing the same chemicals, managed to edge out what a Vamore would have been capable of thanks to avoiding the need to metabolize the toxic byproducts. Who did they think developed the technology they adapted to Zoaforms anyway?

The fools that had wasted his time trying to modify the chemical mix to reduce the toxic byproducts problem were either dead or no longer in a position to object. Now the people wasted on that and similar endeavors could actually be devoted to actually advanced the state of the art. It was no longer necessary to suffer the fools who delayed progress by trying to play catch up with things that should have always simply been a stepping stone to the real goal.

Thanks to increased funding fusion reactor development was on course to begin advancing rapidly. The increasing understanding of MaGrid geometry and reactor characteristics was pointing to the potential of something that would be able to run and power a power suit. Similarly the laser division free from the simpering Zoanoid Processing division had been able to focus on advancing in the direction they'd always intended to go in. If things kept up there should be enough results that within the month he would be able to submit a proposal to the higher ups. Even a mere Ramotith so equipped would be something only the more ambitious HyperZoanoid proposals would be able to claim a real advantage over.

It was time to start an era where technology and Zoaforming techniques were properly used together. Their species had come to dominate due to their ability to utilize tools, not their innate physical strength. And that was something that should not be lost as they took their next evolutionary step.

[-]

Admiral Graham mulled over the young man's words. They seemed patently absurd. He had claimed that there was some kind of Illuminati style organization that was determined to take over the world. Something there had been idle speculation about by people with far too much time on their hands since someone thought to blame a Bavarian organization, that had been destroyed, for the French Revolution. Despite the fact they weren't only Bavarians, but that would mean that the Frogs would have been taking marching orders from the Krauts. Further the young man had claimed to have temporarily crippled them, but that if action wasn't taken to follow up on this quickly that they would recover.

Nanoha's testimony seemed to reaffirm what this Agito Makashima claimed, but she was also only nine years old. There was however four major problems with that. The first was that Earth was a Non-administered World, and thus he had no authority to take such actions. Second was that the people who did have the authority weren't likely to be interested in getting TSAB involved in a war between the local authorities of a planet that they didn't even have trade interests with and had no demonstrated FTL capabilities. As they'd undoubtedly emphasize they had only a small handful of ships that were already stretched thin trying to maintain order and deal with the problem of Lost Logia without dedicating one to orbital fire support in some local skirmish. Third was that explaining it would effectively involve admitting on public record that he'd tried to cover things up. Fourth was that the dimensional distortions around Earth were still too severe to allow a ship safe passage. It required someone skilled in dimensional transfers to even do it on a personal basis.

That wasn't to say he wasn't sympathetic. His solution was to have his crews get the Atlantia, captained by Lustra Lanster, back online ahead of schedule, and kill two birds with one stone. Working with this Agito Makashima, and the rest of the personnel currently occupying his sick bay, they would be able to deal with these raids and deal with this Chronos group while under the auspices of that operation.

They'd be able to successfully restore confidence among the Administered Worlds and deal with this threat to Earth.

[-]

Signum woke up with Astra a warm presence lying in her arms. It had been centuries since the fall of Velka, and her memories had slowly started to return around the same time Astra had been returned to her. She knew this wasn't the original, and she had a pretty good idea where the Book of Darkness had gotten the extra bits to restore her. That was a day she knew would have to come.

She started idly petting Astra's hair. While the quirks were a little different this was still the partner she'd grown so close to in the old days. She was reliable, caring, and devoted with an eye for tactics.

For the first time in a very long time duty wasn't the first thing on her mind.

She felt Astra's arms shift a little on her back, and stopped the mindless petting, trying to put back on her normal stoic demeanor.

"Good morning, Signum." Astra greeted.

"Good morning." Signum acknowledged.

Astra reached out her hand and brushed Signum's cheek. "What's wrong?"

"Old memories."

[-]

It was time for the annual Yagami library trip. Shamal seemed perfectly happy with her taking Hayate to the Library instead, and she'd had to talk Signum into coming along. Signum had wanted to do a small raid with Vita, but ultimately ended up assigning that to Vita and Zafira instead.

"I will stay here." Signum announced outside the Library. Astra had a sneaking suspicion someone wanted to do some raiding.

Astra wove her arm through Signum's. "Come on, it'll be fun." Leaning a little closer she whispered. "Even you need a break every now and then."

[-]

Hayate looked at the book that was just outside of her easy reach. She knew perfectly well the book was incapable of staring back, but for this moment she thought it did mocking her inability to reach the extra few centimeters. Astra had offered to stay with her, but had clearly wanted to be alone with Signum so she'd waved her off.

A hand reached up and grabbed the book she'd wanted. "Is this what you wanted?" A purple haired girl asked holding it out towards her.

"Yes, thank you. My name's Hayate, by the way. What's yours?" She said while taking the proffered book.

"I'm Suzuka Tsukimura, it's nice to meet you." She curtsied cutely.

[-]

Hayate found a content looking Astra sitting next to a stoic Signum having a quiet conversation over a book. "Who's your friend?" Astra asked noticing them as they approached.

"I'm Suzuka Tsukimura, it's nice to meet you." The purple haired girl said curtsying.

"I'm Astra, and this is Signum, it's nice to meet you too." Astra responded, Signum nodding respectfully in acknowledgment.

[-]

Hayate smiled contentedly. Astra ended up falling asleep on Signum's should on the train ride home, while she'd been able to get rather far into one of the books she'd checked out. She had a family.

[-]

Hayate smiled up at Astra as she concluded the chapter. Astra had been surprised by her request, thinking Hayate would consider herself too old to be read to. Instead she'd been rather insistent, and while it hadn't been a child's picture book she'd been able to do a reasonably good job of handling the characters and narration.

"So what do did you think?" Astra asked.

"I really liked the way you were able to do the different characters' voices. Do you think something like that is really possible? That a creature could attach itself to a person's back and control them like a puppet?"

"Anything is possible Master Hayate, but I would prefer to believe that our free will is sacrosanct." Something about the novel seemed oddly familiar, and she felt that she should regard it as a classic even though she shouldn't have been familiar with the literature of this planet. There was also something about the concept of mind controlling slugs that attached themselves to a persons back that was more disquieting then it should have been.

[-]

"Is there anything I can do for you Master Agito?" Shizu asked smiling looking up at him from her hospital bed.

Agito mentally sighed, even recovering from the near death of cryostasis Shizu was more concerned about him then herself. Apparently he had something called a Linker Core, that was the basis of these people's technology. That had allowed their treatments to work better on him then Shizu.

It probably didn't help that Shizu who had been revived after him. She was currently bed ridden, with various monitoring equipment hooked up to her and an IV drip with a concoction of various drugs. She was also looking a little pale.

"How are you holding up?" He asked pulling up a chair.

Shizu looked at him with a content smile. "Maybe I should be sick more often. It's not like you to dote on me, Master Agito. Were you able to accomplish what you came here for?"

"Maybe." He chose not to elaborate, and Shizu seemed content to lie there silently, her eyes closed.

[-]

"The Time-Space Administration Bureau is not really a military force. Yes, we're a uniformed service with trained personnel and ships that can be equipped with serious weapons but Midchilda hasn't had a war in decades, and doesn't really have enemies or rival states to worry about. Our purpose is focused more on keeping the peace and protecting the populace from dangerous relics that we call Lost Logia." Admiral Graham explained.

"So you're really a paramilitary police force, with strategic weapons."

"That's certainly one way to look at it." The Admiral seemed to be mildly amused by his observation.

"And I'm guessing that I'm supposed to believe that freezing us was for the public good?" Agito observed cooly, allowing his words rather then his voice get his meaning across.

"That goes above my head. If I were you, I'd be grateful that I'm sticking my neck out for you."

"You're not doing it for me." Agito noted. "The usual routine would be for us to share pleasantries while we both know that's not what this is about. Why don't we skip that, and you tell me how you think I can help you?"

The Admiral looked at him for a long moment. "As you wish. There's an old Lost Logia that has been a persistent problem for us called the Book of Darkness that's believed to have originated from Ancient Velka. Once it finds a host, its programs proceed to collect Linker Cores until the Book is completed and another world is destroyed as it runs wild.

The group raiding our worlds fits their MO. I need you to stop them before another world goes dark."

[-]

"Nanoha." Fate said quietly.

Nanoha looked over from her bed, and smiled weakly. They'd told her that she'd taken most of the impact, and that they'd been able to find them quickly thanks to a beacon. She didn't want to show Fate how much it hurt, it would make her sad.

She mentally searched for something to talk about. The weather was kind of off the table with it being a massive space station. "How's Arf?"

[-]

"So are you her older sister?" A woman with the same long dark purple hair as Suzuka asked.

"Something like that. My name's Astra."

"Shinobu. It was really nice of you to come over. It's been hard on us since the Takamichis all died in that house fire two weeks ago. The funeral is coming up in a few days, and it's nice to have something else to focus on. When Arisa has been by, Suzuka's always been the one needing to cheer her up and Farin's had to take a leave of absence."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Astra wasn't sure what to say in the way of condolences. She'd only met this woman within the past few minutes and hadn't ever met the family that had died.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." Sinobu's smile was forced, and Astra could see the grief was trying to well back up. She hugged the other woman comfortingly, as it was the only thing she could think to do.

[-]

Hayate had never seen so many cats in one place. She'd always wanted to have a pet, but her Uncle who actually owned the house she was staying in had made it clear that they weren't allowed. Suzuka picked one up and placed it in her lap.

"Kipper is very calm and affectionate." Suzuka explained.

The cat looked up at her unconcerned, before settling in her lap. Hayate petted her, and the cat let off a low rumble as it began to purr. "Thank you." Hayate said, more focused on the cat then Suzuka.

She looked up after a moment to see that Suzuka appeared to be distraught. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing..." Suzuka said as tears began trickling out of her eyes.

Hayate wheeled herself over to her, and tried to comfort her.

[-]

"Focus." Aria advised.

Agito had practiced various forms of meditation in order to cope with the situation his Uncle had forced him into. Strong mental focus was something that came relatively easy to him at this point. This was slightly different from what he'd experimented with, although sharing similarities with Qi Gong techniques. It took a step beyond developing focus and added a higher degree of structure to the energy manipulation techniques.

A dark orb of energy appeared, hanging near him while offering numerous options including being able to move it and perceive things through it. Below him a complex magical circle was carved into the deck, which he'd energized and was part of what was providing the structure to do this. Once the circle had been energized new options had opened up, and he'd been able to grasp and develop a feel for the energies.

It appeared that the glyph was designed specifically around this orb, as while options involving modifying it were relatively easy trying to do something that wasn't based around them was not. Actually moving it around and using the orb felt like working with a neglected muscle. He could do it, but clearly not at the level he was really capable of and would prefer.

It became easy enough, as he continued to adjust, that he felt that he could safely talk without losing the necessary mental focus. "How am I doing?"

"Most students take a week to get to where you're at." Aria answered. "We like to let our students experiment for themselves at this stage. We tend to find that a student's magic beyond this point tends to become somewhat specialized as some students find it easier to do some things then others."

[-]

"How are you feeling, Shizu?" He could see that her color had begun to improve, and she seemed to be happier and more energetic.

"I'm doing well, Master Agito. How is the training going?"

"Apparently I'm a natural." He began telling her about the details.

[-]

"Sir, Administered World #52 is reporting that they've been attacked."

"Send in Provisional Officer Makashima."

[-]

Administered World #52 proved to be a barren desert, or at least in the area they'd transported him into. Obviously the existence of the Sahara didn't preclude the existence of the Savanna and the Amazon. They had provided him with a backpack unit that allowed for interdimensional communications.

He had a few thoughts on how to handle things. As the sonics artificially generated sound across a wide frequency range with a particularly high amplitude and area of effect, there were a number of options that would effectively paralyze an opponent while failing to kill them. The other options went down from there, while trying to avoid killing them.

He didn't trust the Admiral's description of them as soulless and emotionless automatons. It was normal for people to dehumanize those that were their opponents. It enabled a limited form of sociopathy where it was perfectly acceptable to exploit, murder, and brutalize what they no longer saw as people. Further while fiction might show man's love of dehumanizing combatants as mindless and emotionless, both qualities would make for someone that did not represent nearly as effective of a threat.

There was also the issue that the Admiral was dragging his feet on providing effective assistance. Chronos was a large organization that by design was able to absorb casualties. Wounding them as he had would bring them to their knees for a while, but he had no delusions about what would happen if they were given the chance to get back on their feet. And with the timetables that the Admiral was talking about he couldn't help but feel that, that would not be averted. This group might actually be able and willing to help in a timely manner, and might even actually be above backstabbing.

The suit's sensor's moved picking up and focusing on a small energy and gravitational disturbance that wasn't visible in a number of bands, including the visual spectrum. He made sure to toggle the communication pack's microphone off. The signature rocketed past him before pulling a quick Immelman turn, and coming into a position flying behind him. So these were what had caused so much chaos.

"I'm guessing that you can hear me through that thing." He commented, which if there had been an observer would have appeared to have been to empty air. "I'd like to talk."

The signature behind him seemed to hesitate. He could feel some kind of low level energy fluctuations occurring, but didn't have the context to make any sort of sense out of them. Two more, similar, energy signatures rocketed in before coming to a stop relative to him.

"What do you want to talk about?" Based on the readings he was pretty sure that it was simply a projection. It appeared to be woman with shoulder length blue hair in a stylized costume of an archer. Her subtly concerned and guarded expression affirmed his suspicions.

"Would you be fine starting with why you're attacking Mid-childa's colonies?"

The blue haired woman stared at him guardedly for several long moments, while occasionally giving away that she was having a telepathic conversation with someone else. Finally she said, "We are the Wolkenritter, the Cloud Knights, and we have to do this in order to save our Master's life. We have done what we can to avoid the loss of life and needless suffering, but we have no choice."

She appeared to be genuinely distressed about that. "And what happens to the people you attack?"

"They should be fine within a month. They lose their ability to use magic, and they're fatigued as their body tries to compensate." She looked like she was playing that one by ear.

Assuming she wasn't lying, there were worse things they could be doing to people. It did seem to fit in line with what the sick bay personnel had told him about Nanoha and Fate's condition. "I don't suppose you have a trick up your sleeve that could be used to destroy underground complexes hidden in large mountains?"

The woman looked puzzled by his request and seemed to be having a telepathic conversation with her friends when she suddenly looked up, clearly concerned. The communication set he was wearing crackled to life. "This is the Pegasus, hailing Provisional Officer Agito Makashima. Come in please."

The blue haired woman was clearly distressed, but there was a flash of something else as the image faded and the signatures started rocketing away in the direction from which they'd came. He started to pursue only to rapidly begin falling behind. Acknowledging his defeat, while continuing his pursuit he toggled the communications set.

"This is Provisional Officer Makashima. I'm currently pursuing anomalies to suspected source, over."

"This is the Pegasus, be advised that you are flying away from a Dimensional Transfer that was completed 2 minutes ago."

[-]

The anomalies had ultimately just exploded. Like the Captain of the Pegasus had advised the target was not only already gone, but in a different direction from where they'd been headed. She was smart on her feet, he had to give her that.

[-]

"What happened down there?" The Admiral asked his voice more curious then accusatory.

"I encountered some odd energy signatures, that were invisible in the visual spectrum, and pursued them. I suspect this might account for the shots Nanoha observed appearing to come from nowhere."

The Admiral nodded. "Very well, you may continue with your training. Dismissed."

[-]

The past couple of days had involved a number of sessions with the cat girls, Lotte and Aria, about the basics of magic, how to use it effectively, and meditative sessions focused on developing and gaining control of his "Linker Core." They'd finally cleared him to get a "Device" after that last mission. Whether it was just because he'd finally reached the point in training they felt he was justified in having such a thing, or due to them feeling he could be trusted was something he wasn't going to bother speculating too much about.

Agito glanced at the staff he'd just been handed. It looked like the same staff all the security personnel around this place had. On the upside at least it wasn't pink.

"So do you talk too?" The staff didn't respond.

"You're silly, it's a Storage Device. You use it to store your spells. Only Intelligent Devices are equipped with advanced enough computer systems to talk." The clerk commented.

"And how would someone go about acquiring an Intelligent Device?" He asked.

"They're really expensive and rare. We've never really had them in inventory to hand out."

That piqued his interest. There was more then one way to do things. "What about building one? What would someone need to do that?"

The girl thought a moment and then started detailing out a list.

[-]

"Deploy bullets." Agito ordered, and three magical bullets manifested around him.

"Don't you want to say something cool?" Aria asked, not really displeased just puzzled.

"There's no need." He tossed the can up in the air. More bullets gave you more options, but also added the amount of focus and control required to properly control them all. By taking advantage of the suit's sensors he could bypass the normal step of having each of the bullets double as sensors, and instead monitor them through integrated sensors. That allowed him to focus more on the actual magic control, especially as the Storage Device did allow him to setup flight paths, and focus less on dealing with a less then ideal control setup.

[-]

"So how is our guest doing?" Admiral Graham asked.

"He's mastered the basics in record time. We're ready to start moving onto advanced training." Aria answered dutifully.

"And he seems to already know quite a lot about close quarters combat. I haven't been able to teach him much. I also believe he's ready to move on to advanced training." Lotte added.

Admiral Gil Graham mulled the situation over. Advanced training was where a mage moved from the theoretical to the applied. Everything up to this point wasn't excessively dangerous to provide someone with, but once they began advanced training that was no longer the case. Their guest would know how they thought and fought.

His officers were already beginning to recover. Medical was making it clear that they weren't to be put back on active duty, but they were up. In the case of the Harloawns it seemed Chrono was creating something of a fuss with him feeling that he was ready to return to active duty while Medical insisted that he remained in the care for a little longer.

Ultimately what the situation boiled down to was that he needed everyone he could lay claim to dealing with this. These raids needed to be dealt with effectively, or the Allied Worlds would begin losing confidence. In which case he'd need to resign his position before this was over.

"You have my permission to begin advanced training."

[-]

"So how would you design an Intelligent Device if you wanted more processing power?" He'd already begun collecting parts from the list she'd provided as he'd begun finding out who had connections, and what they needed. Now that he'd begun to learn more about these things this was an area that seemed particularly valuable. From what he'd gathered Devices mainly served to assist with managing energy, providing spell grids, and assisting with control. Increased processing power should help with all of these.

Mariel Atenza looked at him a moment before contemplating the question, scribbling on a piece of paper as she did so.

[-]

"Today, we start with flying. Not all mages can fly as some find the normal spells used to do so do not fit with the way their magic works." Aria explained. "If your magic doesn't allow you innately fly, or simply doesn't allow you to fly fast enough the Flyer Fin, and its variants, tend to work well for most mages."

"I'm guessing that this circle is for the Flyer Fin."

"Yes, your Storage Device should be able to recognize and register it once you've used it."

With all the practice he'd doing with the sphere spell, energizing the grid came easily. As he did so though he quickly realized why this wasn't something everyone could just do. It was a lot more complicated then the sphere spell, with a lot more complicated control, but he was managing it. Running both it and the suit's innate flight systems was going to be interesting.

"With high speed flight you need to create a partial barrier in order to protect you from the high air speeds, and present an aerodynamic profile. We'll get to that in a few more lessons. For now you should try to get a feel for flying."

[-]

Agito began to get a feel for how the flying spell worked in a couple of days worth of experimentation, and insisted that his instructor advance on to another topic to add to the mix.

"There are several kinds of magical defense. Hard defenses include fields and shields." Aria said, a hemispherical blue tinted field around one hand, and a rotating intricate circle rotating in front of the other.

"Fields are flexible, and can be forming into any desired shape, and optimized to deal with specific types of energy like temperature. Fields are normally layered with what are commonly called barriers. Highly skilled combat mage's cast a specialized barrier around themselves that's normally called a Barrier Jacket that serves as a final line of defense.

Shields on the other hand are very rigid and tied with a Mage's magic circle. This however allows them to handle more power and thus are better suited to defending against bombardment spells."

"You said hard defenses. Are you implying there are generalizable counters?"

Aria smiled, and the intricate circle disappeared to instead be replaced by a swirling flat discus of swirling of energy. "Can you guess what this does?"

"It looks like something you'd use to try to disrupt an attack. Of course anything focused enough be able to punch through that, because the same thing that allows it to disrupt an attack should mean that it's not exactly reinforced."

[-]

"Sir, Administered World #32 is requesting assistance."

"Deploy Provisional Officer Makashima."

[-]

Agito deployed as many Flyer Fin as was practical onto his armor, and had managed to easily break the sound barrier. He'd been able to cover the distance from the deployment point to the place of the attacks within a matter of seconds. Breaking proved to be almost as easy, as he was able to come to a stop within a matter of meters. He could get used to this. Controlling it all was something of a nightmare, but the Suit seemed fine with shouldering some of the load and he was quickly getting used to working with the setup.

The suit's sensors focused down as a trio flew up to meet him. Cross spectral analysis made it clear that whatever they were it was something rather unique. They appeared to be human enough for his purposes..

The three came to a stop around him forming a triangle with a red headed girl in a red dress and a metal hammer that looked more like a militarized croquet stick then a dedicated war hammer. She didn't appear to be too happy about the situation. In front of him hovered a red headed woman with a large reinforced sword and the archer from before.

"Good afternoon."

The swordswoman nodded subtly, while the archer looked on guarded. After a moment where the swordswoman seemed to politely be giving him the opportunity to say more, she asked. "Why do you need to destroy a mountain?"

Agito noticed the archer pull out what looked like a stripper clip of shotgun shells, and load it into a slot in the bracer on her left arm out of the corner of his eye. He would barely have been able to notice it if not for the suit. "Because if it's not done soon, Earth will fall to Chronos."

The trio showed a flash of recognition, and began looking at each other while looking at him guardedly. "What's Chronos?" The archer asked, after a moment.

"They're a worldwide secret organization, that among their many other goals wishes to transform the Earth's population into Zoanoids."

"What the heck are, 'Zoanoids'?" The little girl blurted out.

"Basically a light tank with claws. The technology is supposed to be derived from a mysterious alien race that visit Earth in past millenia. They've just been dubbed the Creators, because know little about them beyond that they probably created the human race, and designed them to be turned into Zoanoids." Agito explained, while the swordswoman seemed to be having a hard time maintaining her composure. She appeared to afraid of something while the other two appeared to be oblivious to whatever was terrifying her.

"Where did you get that Panzerfehler?" The swordswoman asked after a moment.

Agito made a guess at what she meant. "I was looking for a friend, her name's Natsuki Taiga." He paused noting a strange reaction from the archer. Interesting. "She found an alien starship and it appears that she picked up one of these suits before me. She disappeared, and her family is worried about her." Now the swordswoman seemed to be uncomfortable. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" He made sure to address the swordswoman who seemed to the group's leader and the most likely to know something she'd let on by her body language.

She stared him down for a few minutes, stoically silent. It didn't prove anything, but he was willing to bet she wasn't avoiding a denial, and didn't know anything. That could be dealt with later.

"Well we need to at least make a show of this. So how about we pretend I'm chasing you off? I know a nice little restaurant in Tokyo." He gave them brief directions. "Maybe we could talk next week Saturday, say 11AM local time?"

The swordswoman looked at him from a long moment her visage showing subtle scorn before she finally nodded, and lifted her blade.

[-]

"Have you ever heard of a Device system that uses some kind of shell or cartridge?"

Mariel Atenza looked thoughtful for a moment, and then began tapping away at her console. "Here we are, the Velkan style cartridge system. The cartridges contains stored magical energy, which is released upon ignition. According to our records the Velkans developed these systems to compensate for problems they encountered related to needing to charge up a spell during high speed aerial combat. These cartridges and the related systems however also put considerable strain on both Device and Mage. We have a few of them in inventory and several examples of the associated cartridges."

"So does TSAB use these?"

Mariel shook her head. "No one uses them anymore. The Velkan Church has expressed an interest in studying them, but TSAB has continued to deny their requests. The only purpose for adding a system like this to a Device are combat related."

"The people who attacked me were using a cartridge system. Could Fate or Nanoha's device be modified to use something like that?"

Mariel looked off into space for a few minutes as she contemplated that before typing away at her console. "They seem to think they should be able to. Why would you want to?" She continued to type away focused on her console. "What's that supposed to mean? Why do you have to have them now?" She kept typing away. "Because you have to avenge your Masters?"

[-]

"How are you two doing?" Agito greeted. The hospital staff had put Nanoha in a wheelchair for the time being in order to avoid aggravating her injuries, but otherwise both of them were up and about if not quite as chipper as was probably their usual. They began telling him about various escapades they'd had around the medical ward.

[-]

A slight and youthful looking creature, that the uninformed individual would dub an elf, in a white suit appeared near a large mesa in Arizona. It was over a century since he'd last visited the realm of mortal men. Over a century since he'd entrusted his first disciple with control of an endeavor that was over two millenia in the making. After glancing around at the familiar landscape for a moment, he disappeared.

[-]

The entire Council immediately prostrated themselves as they found themselves in the presence of their Lord, the great Lord Alkanphel. The being onto which the rightful control of Earth had been bestowed.

"Where is Hamilcar?" The Lord Alkanphel's did not need volume to command.

Carleon finally spoke up. "He is dead my Lord. We could find no remains."

The very Earth itself rumbled at his displeasure. "Who has done this?"

There was a long silence as none of his followers wished to admit to their Lord that they did not know. The identity of Hamilcar's assassin was mystery, as was the nature of this outside power. Their best hope of unraveling that mystery had died with Balcus, and now they simply awaited the inevitable reprisal with their infrastructure in ruins.

"Cabraal, you have served me faithfully for many years."

The small man froze, knowing that his life might depend upon how well he answered. "My Lord, a power from another star system has arrived in your absence, and threatened our world. We believe that they are responsible for Balcus' death in reprisal for an agent of theirs that we had taken in for questioning." Cabraal Kahn felt the pressure of his Lord's thought waves as they intruded into his mind, digging. He had no choice but to obey.

After several long painful minutes their Lord's intrusion into their minds ceased. "We shall bring them low."

[-]

Dr Gutenberg was surprised. He'd still be in the process of batting around drafts with his assistants, when the Council had summoned him to appear in person and detail his progress and what his division had to offer. They'd made a point to emphasize that he should bring forward any proposals he had on hand for enhancing Zoanoid performance. All the proposal work focused simply on capturing their interest enough for one of the lower echelons of upper management to pass it up the chain had just been rendered unnecessary.

[-]

Dr. Gutenberg entered the large room in the basement of the Arizona facility. Arranged around him in a circle were eleven imposing men whose very presence commanded an almost instinctual response of obedience and respect. Although he wasn't sure it was proper to call them men. They were larger, and many of them looked more like mythological creatures then men. They were the Zoalords, said to existed since centuries past. Or at least that was the rumor, he knew Guyot had been processed within the past year. That had involved quite a bit of rather complicated requests.

"As you know most of the Tech Division is unaware of the existence of Chronos or Zoanoids, and thus is not deemed a security risk requiring the use of Processing Tank based insurance measures. As a result our Division has been able to continue working almost entirely unaffected by the recent sabotage."

Dr. Gutenberg looked around at his audience. It was the first time he'd been requested to speak before the Council. His main contacts had always been either with various heads of Zoanoid Processing, and the various accountants that controlled the funs his division was allocated.

"I believe you will be happy with our progress.

Our hacker used a few tricks with the RAM and OS in order to resist simple reflashing to factory stock, but we've put into place appropriate countermeasures and all the hashes and checksums now check out. Test subjects have already been run through with increased metabolism modifications, and show no sign of the degradation problems associated with the sabotage as they've progressed through their accelerated life cycle. There are more thorough tests we can do to be sure, but Processing Tank functionality has been restored in at least a limited capacity.

Developing a protocol to preserve the already effected individuals is outside our area of expertise, but that effort should now be able to proceed.

The Tech Division stands by Chronos during this dark hour. Your continued investments have borne fruit, and we've succeeded in improving our fusion reactor design enough to allow a useful pB11 fusion reactor that can be mounted on an integrated power suit that will further enhance the power and capabilities of common, existing Zoanoid types.

I present for your consideration, the ZEX."

Which was short for Zoanoid Enhancement eXoskeleton. Even he acknowledged it wasn't the best name possible, but they were engineers not marketing staff. Their job was to design the damn things, not come up with nice slogans to sell them.

A Ramotith walked in a prop grade version of the armor suit. The higher ups always loved this kind of thing even though it was stupid. It allowed them have a sense of what you were trying to do before you'd done much more then the preliminary work, and thus were suddenly in need out quite a lot of money and equipment.

"On the production model the thermonuclear turbine mounted on his back will allow for sustained flight. Thanks to our advances in materials science the armor will be superior to anything short of the front armor of a Main Battle Tank. Weapons come in the form of a high powered laser guaranteed to easily pierce the armor of any tank, a 28mm Gauss cannon, and a shoulder mounted 85mm Gauss launcher. Additional handheld weapons are available to meet different mission requirements, with the hips and chest having mounting points for additional ammunition, including a belt fed machine gun firing an 11.5mm round that is sure to tear through your enemies. No tank, no fortification, and no enemy force can stand against these mobile opponents."

He hoped he hadn't botched that sales pitch too badly. He had just offered them the equivalent of a flying tank with enough hardware to take out a major military formation by itself. It shouldn't be that hard of a sale to swallow when Zoanoid development was currently stalled at the ability to produce 13x Power types with minimal integrated armor technology. Giles had shown potential, but was still clearly in need of optimization in order to develop that before they'd gotten hacked. It was a valid question if the Gregole proposal could be salvaged and realized in a reasonable time frame.

"What are those shoulder pauldrons?" A graceful looking man with long blonde hair, with the name plate Edward Carleon asked. Referring undoubtedly not so much to presence of shoulder plates, as the ducting works going over the shoulder and down the arm.

He moved over and opened the maintenance panel analogues he'd had included, anticipating such a question. "On the right side these protect the feed linkage that runs over the outside of the arm to the 28mm Gauss Cannon. Thanks to using a Gauss system it's only necessary to store and feed the actual bullet. " He spared them the technical details on how the bullets were cased in a special sabot to ease launching from a Gauss system, those weren't the kind of details they cared about. "We're designing it with a dual feed system so the operator can switch between APFS-DGS-T and HE-GS rounds as appropriate, thus allowing them to effectively engage both tanks and lighter targets like infantry and most vehicles." GS stood for Gauss Sabot, although he didn't expect them to ask about that.

He walked over to the Ramotith's left. "This on the other hand is ducting work that routes overflow air over the laser's components. This combined with the suit's cooling loop allows for improved laser performance. Now if my assistant would turn around." Might as well answer the remaining integrated weapon system while he was at it.

"As you can see the Gauss Launcher is fed from a magazine mounted on the back of the suit. Normal ammunition will have active guidance capabilities, while enhanced range and anti-air munitions adding a small ramjet motor at the expense of some explosive power. As I've faithfully noted in my reports our material science group has made major breakthroughs in fuels and explosives." He didn't really need to look at their faces to know that none of them had bothered to read those reports. Afterall these kind of explosives weren't something you could put in a basic fluid chemical mixer Zoanoid. Dr. Gutenberg gritted his teeth in annoyance at the memory of how much those requirements had been holding them back.

Carleon nodded in acknowledgment.

"So how fast can it fly?" A dignified looking man with black flowing hair, with a name plate identifying him as Sin Amniculus asked.

"The ZEX is not intended to replace aircraft, so the flight systems are primarily designed for sustained hover, while allowing their operators to cruise around a velocities up to 300 kilometers per hour. This limitation is a result of issues related to the response time of the operator when operating so close to the ground.

It's still too early to come up with hard numbers, but it should be capable of a decent fraction of the speed of sound when called for."

"Could you make them faster?" A grey haired man with the name plate Friedrich von Purgstall asked.

"Not in any practical sense. With the suit's projected weight of 1.5 tonnes, the turbine could accelerate it like a rocket easily enough if shifted the reactor to continuous operation. However doing so quickly creates problems for the operator as they'd have nothing in the way of proper aerodynamics, proper flight controls, and would be being being pushed laterally while have their limbs hanging out.

It would be better to address that with a properly designed aircraft."

"What about firepower?" Rumbled a man that looked like some kind of living rock with the name plate Tuatha de Galenos.

"What did you have in mind that would require more firepower?"

The assembled men looked at each other for several long moments, and then one of the side monitors activated.

[-]

Dr. Gutenberg picked up one of the large 11.5mm rifle rounds. Ironically the reason behind their development hadn't really been to produce a powerful rifle round. During initial testing they'd run up against the problem that Zoanoid hands were significantly larger then a normal human's, and a powered gauntlet didn't allow for high dexterity. As a result normal rifle rounds would keep being fumbled, and a larger round had become necessary so a Zoanoid operating one of the suits could easily grab and load a belt of ammunition while under stress. Then being the good little merchants of death they were they'd optimized based on what the ergonomic people had given them.

The caged enhanced diamond heatsink they'd added to ease sustained firing issues had increased the cost considerably. It however had also helped to improve their synthetic enhanced diamond heat sink production techniques in preparation for the more difficult problem of the power suits, and thus fell under applied R&D as much as anything. Various sensors had been attached to allow to MG42 inspired design for tie ins with a HUD that would allow for freer aiming. Anything on the other end of this gun that wasn't at a front lined armored vehicle would be simply be shredded. At 63 kilograms it was something only a Zoanoid could use in its intended role, and could function as such a potent cudgel there wasn't really a point to contemplating the addition of blades.

And yet he'd been outdone. It seemed absurd, but the Council had made it clear the footage was genuine. A pair of prepubescent girls using some unknown technology had demonstrated the ability break the sound barrier with controlled flight, and demonstrate rather high energy feats. The problem wasn't the total power. It was the scale of the systems they'd used, the implication of the recent damage to Relic's Point, and that those dimensional disruptions they'd detected were probably associated with them. That implied they could scale to the largest extent that it mattered, and had a serious tech advantage of unknown type.

The council had cleared the ZEX to begin development, but the message was clear. The game had changed. It was no longer about how efficiently they could defeat the militaries of the world. They'd stepped into the big leagues, it was time to aim higher and see just how far they could push their technologies, and put the nuclear options on the table.

Half remembering a proposal that had crossed his desk, he searched for it. Yes, here it was. A few months ago the Council would have never considered such a thing, but now they just might. The proposal detailed out the potential for growing synthetic Zoacrystals and externally charging them as well various ideas about how they could be used. Expectations were capabilities along the lines of the crystals grown from those of the Council in order to develop their expendable prototypes.

[-]

Astra closed her book. She wasn't able to enjoy it with everything that was buzzing around in the back of her head. Why was so familiar about that suit of armor and the name Natsuki? Why did she feel like she should know things that clearly had no relation to Ancient Velka?

Astra buried her face in her hands why wasn't it making any sense?

[-]

Natsuki came to her senses in a place that she had a hard time comprehending. She pulled herself up slowly with an excessive amount of effort and lurched forward. She mindlessly reached towards her chest, and gripping a panel there opened it. An energy beam erupted outward tearing through the weird blackness and opening a path to somewhere else.

Natsuki struggled to stay on her feet and put one foot in front of the other as she dragged herself towards the exit. Motivated to keep moving and trying to move faster by a combination of painfully slow she was moving, and fear that the exit would close she finally managed to drag herself through it before collapsing onto a wood floor.

Natsuki allowed herself to just lay there. She felt something pull away, and the familiar sensation of her hair resting against her neck. She enjoyed the taste of the air and just being able to breathe as her eyes slipped closed. She wasn't sure how long she laid there before she became dimly aware of a pair of arms that picked her up.

[-]

"She's coming around."

"Don't try to get up or think to hard. You're still physically drained, and your brain has been under quite a bit of stress."

Natsuki opened her eyes and turned in the direction of the voices. A blonde woman with hair down to the nape of her neck was leaning over her with some glowy thing between her hands, and a woman with long red hair was holding her hand. Recognition dawned from two different sets of memories, and her mind slowly began piecing things together.

She turned in Signum direction, and asked the one question a whole society of questions arose from. "Why?"

Signum glanced in Shamal's direction, and they seemed to be having some sort of telepathic conversation before Shamal left the room. "I doubt I have an answer that will satisfy you." Signum said finally. "The Book was, and still is damaged. What I did helped to fix it, and buy Hayate more time. I.. I didn't expect Astra would be restored, or that the Book would use you to fill in the gaps."

Signum waited, clearly awaiting her judgment with her head slightly bowed. Natsuki was still in a daze just trying to process it all. The situation was simply to surreal for her to be able to accept it was real, even as her brain desperately tried to put it all together and have it make some kind of sense.

"I cannot ask your forgiveness for what I've done, but as a measure of my penance for this I will nurse you back to health."

[-]

Author Notes:

Guyver has never focused on Chronos' technology division despite us seeing the trappings of it from Malmot's grenade to laser rifles to the Zoanoid Buster to technological thought wave enhancers and more mundane things like Chronos fixing the environment while creating a pollution free modern society of plenty post X-Day. The Tech Division here is based on the implications of that and Zoanoid developments that were not tied up in bio-energy like Vamore's laser cannons.

Chronos at this point is escalating things against something they don't really have in manga, something they view as a serious outside threat. When Dr. Hekkering comes back into the equation this escalation will continue on that front, but for now the Tech Division is having its heyday in the Sun.


	5. Chronos Data Files

**Ramotith**

Height: 226cm

Mass: 136kg

The Ramotith is one of the most basic Zoanoids developed by Chronos, and this simplicity grants it the strength of having the highest success rate of all known Zoaforms. Rated at 10X it is easily capable of lifting a bobtail truck (U-haul, Ryder, etc.) and piledriving it into the ground like a tent stake.

The ultimate goal for Mass Production Power types is to enhance on these, while approaching a similar success rate. At this point in time none of these efforts have made it past the proposal stage.

**Giles**

Height: 239cm

Mass 150kg

Giles is a 13x Power type and represents one of the more promising efforts in advancing Power types beyond the limitations of Ramotiths.

**Heavy Ramotith**

Normal Loadout:

1x Mk. 23 Laser Rifle or Mk. 05 Machinegun with 800 rds

2x Mk. 12 Launchers

6x Mk. 18 Fragmentation Grenades

The "Heavy" Ramotith is equipped with thick body armor that provides protection against autocannons with a limited ability to resist sustained fire. Thanks to the medical advances allowed by optimization tanks, Zoanoids can recover from severe injuries that would cripple a normal human. As a result this body armor is focused around protecting internal organs in order to increase chances of survival.

The result is a Zoanoid that resembles a modern infantryman in equipment and loadout. Both the Mk. 23 Laser Rifle and Mk. 5 Machinegun are fed by a backpack unit, which the Mk. 12 launchers are mounted onto.

**ZEX Trooper**

Height: 242cm

Fully Loaded (mass): 1.5 tonnes

Max Reactor output: 5.8MW

Max Thrust: 30kN

Normal hoverspeed: 0-300kph (limited for safety rather then mechanical reasons, 3D thrust vectoring control)

Fuel: 82mL Boron & 1 L 180 atm tank Hydrogen; One tank is sufficient for 100 hours of full power operation.

The ZEX, Zoanoid Enhancement eXoskeleton, was developed as part of an initiative to increase the capabilities of individual Zoanoids of easily produced types. While inferior to more sophisticated Zoaforms able to efficiently and effectively use their bio-energy, they allow for high quantities of highly capable and flexible combatants.

Additional ammunition is designed to attach to mounting points on the hips and chest, and these are selected as called for by a given mission. In some cases a buddy is needed to actually reload.

Integrated Weapon (left arm): 15mm Laser Cannon

Pulse: 275kJ

Rate of Fire: 420 pulses/s

Capacitor bank: 280 pulses

The ZEX Laser Cannon is a high energy pulse laser capable of piercing the armor of a modern composite armor MBT, and can be used to effectively slice through much thinner armor. Dedicated overflow ducting, and suit coolant using the entire suit as a heat sink help to manage the thermal bloom. Despite this only a Zoanoid is able to handle the temperatures until the turbine processes the waste heat when using a capacitor depleting shot.

The ZEX operator can adjust the number of pulses per trigger pull. The actual energy pulse is a nanosecond event. Stock settings include 1, 2, 10, 20, 70, and capacitor depletion. While capable of penetrating the turret glacis of a tank with a full power continuous shot, maneuvering and firing at areas where the armor is thinner is preferred.

After the trigger is pulled the control systems evaluate the situation with the capacitance banks and thermals, adjusting things to try to provide the user with the highest availability possible. If firing another shot would cause system damage the control systems will automatically lock out firing control until it's safe to do so and indicate the current status on the HUD.

Integrated weapon (right arm): 28mm/55 Gauss Cannon, rate of fire: 240rpm

War load: 150 rds, HE-GS & 150 rds, APFS-DGS-T; 2.4 km/s

Normal load: 120 rds, HE-GS & 120 rds, APFS-DGS-T (field reloadable from 4Dx6Wx5T boxes)

The 28mm Gauss Cannon is the ZEX's most general purpose weapon, being effective against most targets. It is equipped with a laser range finder, accommodations for programmable fuzes, and an operator switchable dual feed system while being capable of launching projectiles at 2.4 km/s with minimal suit drift issues.

Integrated weapon (left shoulder): 85mm/24 Gauss Launcher, rate of fire: 60 rpm

Normal load: 6 rds, HE (field reloadable from 3 rd boxed clips); 830 m/s

The Gauss Launcher is primarily intended to be used to deploy laser link guided munitions for the destruction of fortifications and structures, thus effectively providing it's own Infantry Tank support. It's also designed to allow for ramjet equipped guided anti-air munitions. The Launcher has a limited elevation traverse, and is not intended for use against tanks. It also has a laser range finder and accommodations for a programmable fuze.

Integrated equipment: Countermeasures

20x flares mounted on the back of the engine

2x chaff dispensers on the back of the engine

4x smoke grenade launchers, per shoulder

2x chest mounted smoke generator packs

Normal additional equipment:

8x Mk. 18 Grenades

1x Mk. 05 Machineguns with 600 rds total

**Handheld Weapons**

Chronos Mk. 02 "Zoanoid Buster"

Feeds from 3 rd speed loaders.

The Zoanoid Buster was an attempt to develop a compact weapon that would allow security personnel deal with escaping test subjects. The result was a heavily built 20mm revolver that relies heavily on Chronos' advances in the field of explosives. This weapon is capable of penetrating through the defenses of basic Zoanoids, and inflicting relatively shallow wounds to organs.

The Mk. 2 project was abandoned after initial testing demonstrated that only Zoanoids could safely fire it. Even Zoanoids in human form showed issues related to shots going wild, and broken wrists.

One of the prototypes stored in Arizona and several boxes of test ammunition are currently unaccounted for.

Chronos Mk. 03, 5.56x45mm NATO belt fed Machinegun

Feeds from 600 rd belts

The Chronos Mk. 3 was developed to address the issue of increasing Zoanoid lethality against Human Infantry. The concept called for supplying Zoanoids with something that could kill Infantry while allowing for lots rounds to be of carried. Initial testing revealed serious problems with Zoanoids being able to load belts when under stress due to the large size of their hands relative to the size of the rounds.

As a result while the Mk.3 remains in inventory it has fallen out of favor with the introduction of the Mk. 5.

Chronos Mk. 05, 11.5x92mm belt fed Machinegun

Feeds from 200 rd belts

Heavily based on MG42 with design lessons taken from the M2HB, the Chronos Mk. 5 was an attempt to address the issues related to the Mk. 3. The ultimate result would be most accurately classified as a HMG, weighing in at an impressive 63kg loaded and using a round based on the 460 Steyr. All of its controls have been sized to be comfortable and easy to use by a Zoanoid. ZEX troopers equipped with these tend to use the storage mounting points for additional ammo belts.

Chronos Mk. 12, 155mm Launcher

The Chronos Mk. 12 is a collapsible and disposable 155mm Launcher, normally mounted to the backpack of a Mk. 23. It is designed to allow for the rapid destruction of tanks, and structures.

Chronos Mk. 18, Fragmentation Grenade

The Chronos Mk. 18 is a hand grenade designed for Zoanoid hands based on the American M26 hand grenade. Its charge is larger, and thanks the Chronos' advances in explosives far more potent then its American counterpart.

Chronos Mk. 23, Laser Rifle

The Chronos Mk. 23 is a backpack powered chemical laser based on the technology slated for the proposed Vamore bio-blaster type, with adjustable output. The kill mechanism on vehicles is a combination of spall, and the ability to ignite ammunition and fuel. Wound cauterization leads to low effectiveness when used directly against organic targets.

This is appropriate for use against light to medium vehicles, and teams working together to ambush tanks from the rear and sides.

**Controller**

Classified

**Cataphract**

Classified

Author's Notes:

I know some people won't be happy with how I balanced things, but I've done it this way in order to preserve my own sanity by trying to be consistent with the majority of events and documentation, which means excluding X-Day.

As a result as indicated above in order to preserve my own sanity I'm ignoring the manga's depiction of X-Day. Normal Ramotiths will be treated as protected against ballistic threats up to 14.5mm HMG rounds, and Heavy Ramotiths as able to take 30mm rounds to their body armor. In effect I'm turning the manga depiction of X-Day into movie 300 versus the historic Battle of Thermopylae. This allows me to have the Zoanoid Buster present and work as depicted, etc. without going cross eyed.

These adjustments are for internal consistency reasons, rather then faction balancing which is part of why they have hardware that can achieve the ends associated with X-Day.


End file.
